OXFORD – Eleven robed Klansmen left their scheduled rally on the University of Mississippi campus Saturday after nine minutes of being shouted down by a couple of hundred detractors at the protest site in front of Fulton Chapel.

The Ku Klux Klan had announced plans to protest Chancellor Dan Jones’ decision to pull the song “From Dixie with Love” from the university band’s gameday repertoire after some fans persisted in shouting “The South will rise again” to its final notes.

For several minutes the robed white supremacists did not speak. When one Klansman began shouting back at the crowd, he was drowned out by boos and insults. At one point perhaps half the crowd, which included fans from both Ole Miss and Louisiana State University, the day’s football opponent, shouted in unison, “Go to hell, KKK!”

At a courtyard a few yards away, nearly 100 counterprotesters faced away from the Klan rally, wearing shirts that said, “TURN YOUR BACK ON HATE.” The group repeatedly read in unison the University Creed, whose first affirmation states, “I believe in the dignity of each person.”

University Attorney Lee Tyner was disappointed that much of the media attention was focused on the Klansmen.

Pointing to the counterprotesters still reading the university creed long after the White Knights had vacated their rally site, Tyner said, “This is where the real story is.”