diff --git a/django_tables2/columns/base.py b/django_tables2/columns/base.py
index e59b41d..d534d66 100644
--- a/django_tables2/columns/base.py
+++ b/django_tables2/columns/base.py
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
-from django.db.models.fields import FieldDoesNotExist
-from django_tables2.templatetags.django_tables2 import title
-from django_tables2.utils import A, AttributeDict, OrderBy, OrderByTuple
 from collections import OrderedDict
 from itertools import islice
-import six
 import warnings
 
+from django.db.models.fields import FieldDoesNotExist
+import six
+
+from django_tables2.templatetags.django_tables2 import title
+from django_tables2.utils import A, AttributeDict, OrderBy, OrderByTuple
+from ..utils import python_2_unicode_compatible
+
 
 class Library(object):
     """
@@ -249,6 +252,7 @@ class Column(object):  # pylint: disable=R0902
             return cls(verbose_name=verbose_name)
 
 
+@python_2_unicode_compatible
 class BoundColumn(object):
     """
     A *run-time* version of `.Column`. The difference between
@@ -278,7 +282,7 @@ class BoundColumn(object):
         self.column = column
         self.name = name
 
-    def __unicode__(self):
+    def __str__(self):
         return six.text_type(self.header)
 
     @property
diff --git a/django_tables2/utils.py b/django_tables2/utils.py
index 3d1c2c9..078c7fd 100644
--- a/django_tables2/utils.py
+++ b/django_tables2/utils.py
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ class OrderByTuple(tuple):
             transformed.append(item)
         return super(OrderByTuple, cls).__new__(cls, transformed)
 
-    def __unicode__(self):
+    def __str__(self):
         return ','.join(self)
 
     def __contains__(self, name):
diff --git a/tests/test_templates.py b/tests/test_templates.py
index a65a1b0..27e5b67 100644
--- a/tests/test_templates.py
+++ b/tests/test_templates.py
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ def test_as_html_db_queries(transactional_db):
     # with queries(count=1):
     #     PersonTable(Person.objects.all()).as_html()
 
-
+@pytest.mark.django_db
 class TestQueries(TransactionTestCase):
     def test_as_html_db_queries(self):
         class PersonTable(tables.Table):
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index b7016c6..87b3895 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -91,5 +91,4 @@ deps = -r{toxinidir}/requirements/django-1.3.x.pip
 
 [testenv:py27-dj12]
 basepython = python2.7
-commands = python -W error {envbindir}/coverage run setup.py test []
 deps = -r{toxinidir}/requirements/django-1.2.x.pip