New Orleans has been hoisting Dixie beer for more than a century. Soon, that beer -- and the company behind it -- will have a new name.

In a statement released Friday, Gayle Benson, owner of Dixie Brewery and the city’s Saints and Pelicans franchises said her company will change the well known Dixie label. A new moniker has yet to be decided, but it will be chosen with feedback from the local community, she said.

“With inclusive input from all of our community stakeholders, we are preparing to change the name of our brewery and products that carry the Dixie brand and these conversations will determine what brand will best represent our culture and community,” Benson wrote in a statement.

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The new Dixie Brewery in New Orleans East on Tuesday, January 21, 2020.

The news comes as people across the country have been calling for the removal of symbols associated with racist figures, movements and groups.

Dixie is a longstanding nickname for the South, typically associated with the states that seceded to form the Confederacy. The origins of the word are in dispute, with some tracing them to the Mason-Dixon line that once divided North from South, and others speculating that it came from $10 bills printed in New Orleans in the 1800s that were branded with "Dix," French for "ten," and known as "dixies."

The term gained a different kind of currency through the song "Dixie," written for an antebellum-era minstrel show. It became an anthem for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

In her announcement, Benson wrote that she recognized “that our nation and community are currently engaged in critical conversations about racism and systemic social issues that have caused immeasurable pain and oppression of our Black and Brown communities."

She continued: “As New Orleans, and our country, continue to evolve we find it necessary to reflect on the role our brewery can play in making our home more united, strong and resilient for future generations."

The Dixie beer name has long been part of the city's restaurant and drinking culture, lettered into weathered signs and laced into barroom stories. Since Benson acquired the company three years ago and conducted a major relaunch, the name has been applied anew everywhere from grocery aisles to billboard-style ads around the Superdome.

Dixie Brewery got its start in 1907, flowing from what would become a landmark facility rising over Tulane Avenue. Surviving Prohibition, the brewery was eventually the last one based in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina hit, devastating the facility, the company had already fallen on hard times.

Dixie beer continued to be produced by other breweries in the years that followed, but the brand was fading -- even in New Orleans -- as more new breweries opened up.

In 2017, Gayle and Tom Benson acquired majority ownership of Dixie from the local Bruno family, and pledged to return production to New Orleans. Since Tom Benson’s death in 2018, Gayle Benson has taken the reins of brewery and the sports franchises.

In January, Dixie debuted its newly built brewery and taproom in New Orleans East. It was hailed at the time as a revival for a longtime New Orleans brand, and an economic development win for a part of the city with few visitor attractions.

In her statement Friday, Benson said she and her husband bought Dixie to reinvest in a company with local roots. First, though, they vetted the name "to be sure that all members of our community felt the brand was one that represented everyone and they would be proud to welcome back."

"To ensure this, we engaged in extensive third party market research to ask the people of New Orleans and our region how they felt about the brand and, more specifically, the Dixie Beer name. We also initiated a number of conversations with a diverse group of local cultural, government and educational leaders to gauge their feelings about the brewery and the name.

"The results of this market research and subsequent conversations resulted in a near universal consensus that restoring Dixie Beer to New Orleans would be a sign of our city’s rebirth and a powerful testament to the resilience of our people."

More recently, however, the name Dixie is being shed more and more.

The country trio the Dixie Chicks this week changed their band name to the Chicks, announcing the move on their web site with a message reading "We want to meet this moment."

And earlier this year, officials in Miami moved to change road signs marking the Dixie Highway.

In 2018, Dolly Parton changed the name of the dinner show at her amusement parks from Dixie Stampede to Dolly Parton’s Stampede, explaining, at the time, that “attitudes change.”

Email Ian McNulty at imcnulty@theadvocate.com.

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