Dixie Magazine

Dixie Magazine (later Dixie Dairies) was a monthly periodical that billed itself as “Devoted to the Traditions, Memories and Development of the South.” Published from 1925 to 1929 in Little Rock (Pulaski County), the magazine sought to boost the economy and improve the image of the South in general, and Arkansas in particular, albeit sometimes by eliding many of the problems inherent to “traditional” Southern culture, such as racial inequality.

The masthead for early issues stated that the magazine’s main editorial offices were in Little Rock and Dallas, Texas, with branch offices in Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee. A 1925 article on the launch of the magazine reported, “Advance subscriptions in large numbers already have been received from every Southern State, and several Eastern, Northern, and Middle West States, and the editors believe that in a short time its circulation will be national.” However, by the following June, the Dixie Publishing Company seemed to be publishing exclusively out of Little Rock. The early editorial staff included an array of contemporary luminaries, including Florence McRaven, who was a leader in the Arkansas Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Little Rock Drama League, the Arkansas Authors and Composers Society, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Women of the Ku Klux Klan; she would later serve as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1927 to 1930. Soon, the only people listed on the masthead were Mrs. N. B. Ford of Dallas as the owner and William McComb as acting editor. Dixie Magazine described itself as “Arkansas’ only monthly newspaper,” published with the aim “to keep alive the high ideals of its people.” The editorial office was located in the Enterprise Building at Fifth and Spring Streets in downtown Little Rock.

The contents of the magazine ranged from poetry extolling the virtues of the South to articles highlighting prominent men of the South. One example of the former is the poem “Out Here in Arkansas” by Josie Frazee Cappleman, which appeared in the December 1925 issue and celebrated the state’s natural resources, as with the following verse:

Here are granite mounts and gold mines—
At least we hear there are—
And coal-beds, without bottoms,
Outstretching deep and far;
Here are gems of pearl and diamond,
Without blemish, fault or flaw;
And there but few the treasures
Out here in Arkansas.

In the same issue, Fred W. Allsopp contributed a paean to the Arkansas Gazette titled, “Arkansas’ Great Newspaper.”

Most issues centered upon specific themes, as with the October 1926 issue, “Story of Arkansas’ Railroads,” or the July 1927 special, “Agriculture, the True Basis of Prosperity.” The May 1926 issue was a “reunion souvenir” for the United Confederate Veterans reunion in Birmingham, Alabama. The magazine devoted extensive coverage to the Flood of 1927. A recurring theme throughout the run of the magazine was the development of Arkansas roads, with feature articles highlighting the various places to which one could travel by car and secure overnight lodgings.

An editorial printed on the cover of the January 1929 issue encouraged the state to set aside the funding necessary to pursue a program of tick eradication and thus foster the dairy industry: “Arkansas is being deprived, through the 20 ticky counties, of an opportunity to increase the state income and wealth.” The concern with developing dairies in the state would lead, with the July 1929 issue, to the magazine changing its name to Dixie Dairies, subtitled, “A Magazine of Southern Development.” The announcement of the name change noted, “One reason for doing this is that we believe as we have said editorially the most rapid acretion [sic] to public and private wealth in Arkansas will come through the development of dairying,” but added that the general editorial policies of the magazine would remain unchanged “other than in presenting more fully the possibilities of dairying and also to show our people how they can make money by keeping a few or many dairy cows in Arkansas.” The Baxter Bulletin, among other newspapers, reported in September 1929 that Dixie Dairies was sponsoring the second-place prize, $25 in gold, for a contest at the Arkansas State Fair “for the Arkansas cow which produces the greatest amount of butterfat.”

However, the enhanced focus upon dairying appears not to have made the magazine operation more lucrative, and the publication seems to have folded either with, or soon after, the December 1929 issue.

For additional information:
Dixie Magazine. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas.

“Magazine Will Tell Story of the South.” Pocahontas Star Herald, October 1, 1925, p. 7.

“Prizes for Butterfat.” Baxter Bulletin, September 13, 1929, p. 2.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas