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The Dixie Chicks drop 'Dixie' from their name

The change to the Chicks comes after fellow country group Lady Antebellum changed their name to Lady A by dropping a word associated with the Civil War-era South.
/ Source: TODAY

The Dixie Chicks have dropped the Dixie.

The Grammy-winning band will now be known as the Chicks after becoming the second popular country music act to alter its name this month by dropping a term connected to the Civil War-era South. The changes have come amid worldwide protests against racial inequality and injustice.

The Dixie Chicks will now be known as the Chicks.
The Dixie Chicks will now be known as the Chicks. Dixie Chicks

The change to the Chicks comes after fellow platinum-selling country act Lady Antebellum changed their name to Lady A earlier this month.

The website for the former Dixie Chicks was changed on Thursday to the Chicks and features a new video of the song "March March." The video includes footage from current protests and archival footage of historic protests for a variety of causes ranging from gay rights to Black Lives Matter.

"We want to meet this moment," the band wrote in a short statement on the website.

A quote from an unknown source is below the video, which reads, "If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you."

The group consisting of Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire also noted that they reached out to the members of a New Zealand pop group called The Chicks to resolve use of the name.

"A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to ‘The Chicks’ of NZ for their gracious gesture in allowing us to share their name," a spokesman for the band said in a statement to TODAY. "We are honored to co-exist together in the world with these exceptionally talented sisters. Chicks Rock!"

The band presumably was trying to avoid the controversy created when Lady Antebellum changed its name only to discover there already was a Lady A, a Black blues singer from Seattle, who was upset about the band using her name.

The band later posted on Instagram that it met with the singer Lady A and is "moving forward with positive solutions."

The Chicks, who will release their first new album in 14 years on July 17, are no strangers to controversy.

A comment from Maines about President George W. Bush in 2002 brought a swift backlash against the band. She told a crowd in London crowd that “we’re on the good side with y’all,” and made it clear the band was against the impending invasion of Iraq, while adding that she was ashamed that Bush is from her home state of Texas.

The comments resulted in bans from country radio and death threats to the band, which came back with a hit album in 2006 called "Taking the Long Way."

Their name change comes as a host of entities with names related to the slavery era are under fire, whether it's Confederate statues being toppled by protesters or brands like Aunt Jemima syrup and Uncle Ben's rice changing their name or logo.