The state slogan "Heart of Dixie" is disappearing from more and more Alabama license plates every year. One-third of the groups that promote distinctive and collegiate license plates now choose to leave the slogan off their tags.

The standard state license plate still has "Heart of Dixie," but it's reduced to letters one-sixteenth of an inch high and it's placed in the bottom corner of the tag where it's barely visible to passing motorists. In its place, the song title "Stars Fell on Alabama" is splashed across the top and bottom of the tags.

Former Governor Don Siegelman, who approved that tag design, said he heard the song played at the Paris Air Show in 1999 and realized it would be an internationally recognized symbol for Alabama. He wanted it to foster positive images at a time when Alabama was trying to recruit several international corporations.

State law requires the standard state license plate to carry the slogan "Heart of Dixie," but it doesn't specify the size. In 1997, the Legislature changed the law to make "Heart of Dixie" optional for distinctive and collegiate license plates. Currently, 17 of Alabama's 51 specialized license plates leave off the slogan. Those 17 tags promote everything from Alabama farms and forests, to adoption and the University of Alabama.

The University of Alabama originally had "Heart of Dixie" on its tag, but redesigned the tag and removed the slogan after the law changed. University spokeswoman Janet Griffith said it was simply a matter of space. The university's symbol, an elephant, takes up a large portion of the current tag.

"Heart of Dixie" was first used by the Alabama Chamber of Commerce in the 1940s. According to the state Department of Archives and History, the chamber sought to put Alabama at the economic center of the South by proclaiming: "Alabama is geographically the Heart of Dixie, Alabama is industrially the Heart of Dixie, Alabama is, in fact, the Heart of Dixie."

In 1951, the chamber got the Legislature to vote to put the slogan on license plates, and it made its first appearance in 1955. For years, the slogan appeared across the top of the tag in large type. The current version is the smallest type ever used for the slogan.