Alabama License Plate

[AKAtude]

Alabama professor fighting 'Dixie' license plate in court



The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A criminal justice professor is fighting a ticket she got for putting tape over part of the "Heart of Dixie" logo on her Alabama license plate.

Karen Taylor, who teaches at historically black Alabama State University, was pulled over for speeding by a Montgomery police officer last month and also cited for covering the word "Dixie" on her tag.

"I find the word 'Dixie' to be historically offensive and I don't feel I have to advertise a word or slogan I ideologically disagree with," said Taylor. "It's the fight song of the slave-holding South, and as a black person, I find it offensive."

Taylor's case was originally set to be heard Wednesday but it was postponed until Aug. 23.

Taylor said she placed a piece of red-and-white tape over the word "Dixie" 10 years ago in protest of the song's racist heritage. When she was pulled over last month and issued a ticket for having an illegal tag, it was the first time her tag protest caused a problem.

She paid the $118 speeding fine for going 51 mph in a 35 mph zone but fought the tag violation.

"I told the officer I had a constitutional right to alter the tag and he said I didn't and wrote out the ticket," she said.

Police spokesman Sgt. Huey Thornton said Taylor broke the law and the officer acted properly.

Alabama's criminal code requires that all plates have "a conventionalized representation of a heart and the words 'Heart of Dixie' on them," Thornton said.