Country music legends Dixie Chicks has officially dropped the first part of their name because of its racial connotations, with the group now set to be known as just The Chicks from now onwards.
The announcement of the name change coincided with the release of the group’s new protest anthem, March March, which encourages people to stand up for their rights.
The song will be on the group’s first album in a decade and a half, Gaslighter, which is set for release on July 17th. In a statement, the country outfit thanked a New Zealand outfit that goes by the same now for allowing them to use the “Chicks” moniker.
“A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to ‘The Chicks’ of NZ for their gracious gesture in allowing us to share their name,” the group wrote in a statement. “We are honored to co-exist together in the world with these exceptionally talented sisters.”
The Dixies’ decision comes at a time of great racial upheaval in America, where symbols of white supremacy and inequality and being torn down far and wide.
The word “Dixie” is believed to be derived from the Mason-Dixon Line, informally known as the border between free and slave-holding states after the Missouri Compromise, and is commonly used to describe the Civil War-era South.
The term was popularized by a 1859 song titled “Dixie,” written by Daniel Decatur Emmett who founded one of the first blackface minstrel troupes, and was adopted as an unofficial anthem of the Confederacy.
The name change comes after fellow country group Lady Antebellum changed their name to Lady A, removing the reference to the pre-Civil War South, only to find out that a Black blues singer had used the name for decades.
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