Readers React: If Dixie was a good name for her progressive mother, it’s a good name for a school district

To the editor: I was taken aback by the report about some people in Marin County wanting to change the name of the San Rafael-based Dixie School District.

First of all, Dixie is a wonderful name. My courageous mother, who raised four children on her own, was named Dixie. She was an extremely progressive woman who believed in civil rights for all.

If the school had been named Dixie with any intention of honoring the Confederacy, that would be a different situation. I have no doubt that if my mother had ever believed her name in any way honored the Confederacy, she would have changed her name — she was that adamant about civil rights.

This kerfuffle seems similar to the controversy over the wonderful mural at a public school in Koreatown. Even my radical mom would have said, “Come on folks, get real.”

Loren Mark, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Here is a simple solution to the problem: The school district should take the full name of the person for whom it was named.

It would then be called the Mary Dixie School District, more clearly honoring the woman for whom it was named.

Susan Sherman, Covina

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