Southern United States

Southern United States
The states shown in dark red are usually included in the South, while all or portions of the striped states may or may not be considered part of the Southern United States. All the red and striped states were slave states in 1860, except the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, when the Civil War decisively shaped the Southern image.

The Southern United States or the South constitutes a distinctive region covering a large portion of the United States. Due to the region's unique cultural and historic heritage, including the doctrine of states' rights, the institution of slavery and the legacy of the American Civil War, the South has developed its own customs, literature, musical styles (such as country music and jazz, rock 'n' roll and blues), and cuisine.

History

The culture of the South has its origins with the settlement of the region by British colonists. In the 17th century most were of English origins, but in the 18th century large numbers of Scots-Irish settled in Appalachia and the Piedmont. These people engaged in warfare, trade and cultural exchanges with the Native Americans who were already in the region (such as the Creek Indians and Cherokees). After 1700 large numbers of African slaves were brought in to work on the large plantations that dominated export agriculture of tobacco, rice, and indigo. Cotton became dominant after 1800. The explosion of cotton cultivation [1] made the "peculiar institution" of slavery an integral part of the South's early 19th century economy. The region dominated politics in the 1790-1836 era, as typified by Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson.

In 1832 South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, a procedure in which a state could in effect repeal a Federal law, directed against the most recent tariff acts. Soon a naval flotilla was sent to Charleston harbor, and the threat of ground troops was used to compel the collection of tariffs. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over state's rights would continue to escalate in the coming decades. By 1850 the South saw it was losing power to the fast-growing North, and waged a series of Constitutional battles regarding states rights and the status of slavery in the territories, The South imposed a low-tariff regime on the country (Walker Tariff of 1846) (which angered Pennsylvania industrialists) and blocked proposed federal funding of national roads and port improvements. Once the northern Republicans came to power in 1861they passed an elaborate program for economic modernization that included national banks, homestead laws free farms, a transcontinental railroad and support for land-grant colleges. Seven cotton states decided on secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. They formed the Confederate States of America, and in 1861 were joined by four more states. The United States government refused to recognize the new country, and kept in operation its second to last fort in the South, which the Confederacy captured in April 1861 at the Battle of Fort Sumter, in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, triggering the Civil War. In the four years of Civil War which followed, the South found itself as the primary battleground, with all but one of the main battles taking place on Southern soil. The Union blockade stopped most commerce from entering the South, so the Confederate taxes hardly mattered. The Southern transportation system depended primarily on river and coastal traffic by boat; both were shut down by the Union Navy. The small railroad system virtually collapsed, so that by 1864 internal travel was so difficult that the Confederate economy was crippled.

The Confederates were eventually defeated by the Union. The South suffered much more than the North did - primarily because the war was fought almost entirely on southern soil. Overall, the Confederates had 95,000 killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease, for a total of 260,000 [2], out of a total white Southern population at the time of around 5.5 million [3]

After the Civil War, the South had become devastated in terms of its population, infrastructure and economy. The South also found itself under Reconstruction, with Union military troops in direct political control of the South. Many white Southerners who had actively supported the Confederacy lost many of the basic rights of citizenship (such as the ability to vote) while with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (which outlawed slavery), the 14th Amendment (which granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans) and the 15th amendment (which extended the right to vote to black males), African Americans in the South began to enjoy more rights than they had ever had in the region.

By the 1890s, though, a political backlash against these rights had developed in the South. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, a clandestine organization sworn to perpetuate white supremacy, used lynchings, cross burnings and other forms of violence and intimidation to keep African Americans from exercising their political rights, while the Jim Crow laws were created to legally do the same thing. It would not be until the late 1960s that these changes would be undone by the American Civil Rights Movement. (For more on racial issues in the South, see the Race relations section below.)

The first major oil well in the South was drilled at Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas, on the morning of January 10, 1901. Other oil fields were later discovered nearby in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and under the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting "Oil Boom" permanently transformed the economy of the West South Central States, and led to the first significant economic expansion after the Civil War.

The economy, which for the most part had still not recovered from the Civil War, was dealt a double blow by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the economy suffered significant reversals and millions were thrown out of work. Beginning in 1934 and lasting until 1939, an ecological disaster of severe wind and drought caused an exodus from Texas and Arkansas, the Oklahoma Panhandle region and the surrounding plains, in which over 500,000 Americans were homeless, hungry and jobless. [4] Thousands left the region forever to seek economic opportunities along the West Coast.

It is worth noting, though, that nearly all southerners, black and white, suffered as a result of the Civil War. With the region devastated by its loss and the destruction of its civil infrastructure, much of the South was generally unable to recover economically until World War II (1939 - 1945). The South was noted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the "number one priority" in terms of need of assistance during the Great Depression (1929-1939), instituting programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933. Locked into low productivity agriculture, the region's growth was slowed by limited industrial development, low levels of entrepreneurship, and the lack of capital investment.

Geography

As defined by the Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes 16 states, and is split into three smaller units, or divisions: The South Atlantic States, which are Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia (plus the District of Columbia); the East South Central States of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee; and the West South Central States of, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The region as defined by the Census Bureau currently contains eight of the twenty-five largest metropolitan areas in the United States, as well ''as portions of two others.''However, not all definitions of the South are based on strictly geographic divisions, with culture and history also playing a large role in defining what is the South. For example, the Deep South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the American South which consists of that part of the Mississippi delta region found in East Arkansas and the states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana (six of the seven original states of the Confederate States of America, the seventh state being Texas). Historically, the South can also refer to the Old South, the Southern states represented in the original thirteen American colonies: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The Deep South and the Old South used to be known colloquially as Dixie, and may still be referred to nostalgically as such.

The border states of the Civil War constitute a major definitional problem for the South. Missouri and Kentucky both formed rump secessionist governments that applied for admission to the Confederacy, and both remain partly or mostly Southern in culture to this day; across the Ohio and Mississippi, even portions of Illinois and Indiana south of Interstate 70 and especially Interstate 64 exhibit strong Southern cultural characteristics. West Virginia is a unique case, as it itself seceded from Virginia out of reluctance to join the Confederacy and retains an almost prickly sense of independence; whether it is culturally part of the South depends both on what area of the state is under discussion, and on what distinction the viewer cares to draw between Appalachian and Southern culture. Maryland and Delaware, south of the main length of the Mason-Dixon Line, were slave states at the time of the Civil War, but did not secede; in ensuing decades, Southern influence waned in the urbanized portions of Delaware and Maryland, but remains present in the rural parts of those States, especially Maryland's Eastern Shore and virtually all of Delaware below the C&D Canal.

Culturally, two geographically Southern metropolitan areas merit special discussion. The cities of South Florida hardly existed at all prior to the completion of railroads the length of Florida's Atlantic coast in the 1880s and 1890s, and initially developed as resort towns serving a mostly-Northeastern clientèle. That influence continued and eventually drew significant numbers of permanent migrants, and has since been flavored by a large influx of Latin American (especially Cuban) immigration; the resulting unique cultural mix has been attractive to many, but could hardly be considered classically Southern. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area sat on a cultural fault line for many years between Northern-trending Maryland and resolutely Southern Virginia, and the Washington Redskins and Washington Senators professional sports franchises were considered the "home teams of the South" before 1960s expansion in their respective sports. Since the 1970s, though, urbanization and suburbanization accelerated dramatically with the expansion of the defense and technology economy, particularly in Northern Virginia; nowadays, Southern cultural influence begins to recede at the edges of this area and is shadowy at best by the time one reaches the Capital Beltway.

Biologically, the South is a vast, diverse region, having numerous climatic zones ranging from alpine, to temperate, to sub-tropical, to tropical, to arid. Many crops grow easily in its soils and can be grown without frost for at least six months of the year. Some parts of the South, particularly the Southeast, have landscape characterized by the presence of live oaks, magnolia trees, jessamine vines, and flowering dogwoods. Another common environment is the bayous and swampland of the Gulf Coast, especially in Louisiana, which looms large in American film history. The South is famously a victim of kudzu, a fast-growing vine which covers large amounts of land and kills indigenous plant life.

Politics

In the century after Reconstruction, the white South strongly identified with the Democratic Party. This lock on power was so strong the region was politically called the Solid South. The Republicans controlled parts of the Appalachian mountains, and competed for power in the border states, but otherwise it was political suicide for a politician to be a Republican before the 1960s.

In the 1960s the Democratic lock was broken. A key factor was civil rights. Until the passage of the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s, the Democrats argued that only they could defend the region from the onslaught of northern liberals and the civil rights movement. In response to the Brown decision of 1954, the "Southern Manifesto" was issued in March 1956, by 101 southern congressmen (19 senators, 82 House members). It denounced the Brown decisions as a "clear abuse of judicial power [that] climaxes a trend in the federal judiciary undertaking to legislate in derogation of the authority of Congress and to encroach upon the reserved rights of the states and the people." The manifesto lauded "those states which have declared the intention to resist enforced integration by any lawful means." It was signed by all southern senators except Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson and Albert Gore, Sr. of Tennessee. Virginia closed schools in Warren County, Charlottesville, and Norfolk rather than integrate, but no other state followed suit. A die-hard element resisted integration, led by Democratic governors Orval Faubus of Arkansas, Ross Barnett of Mississippi, Lester Maddox of Georgia, and, especially George Wallace of Alabama. They appealed to a blue collar electorate.

After passage of the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights laws the middle class and business elements accepted integration, and with the barrier to becoming a Republican removed, flocked to the Republican party. Integration thus liberated Southern politics. The transition to a Republican stronghold took decades. First the states started voting Republican in presidential elections--the Democrats countered that by nominated such Southerners as Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and Al Gore in 2000. Then the states began electing Senators, and finally governors. Georgia was the last state to do so, with Sonny Perdue taking the governorship in 2002. In addition to the middle class and business base, Republicans attracted strong majorities from the evangelical Christian vote, which had been nonpolitical before 1980.

There was major resistance to desegregation in the mid 1960s to early 1970s. Those issues faded away, replaced by culture wars between the Left and the Right over traditional morals and family values (such as secular public schools, abortion, and gay activism).

Presidential history

Before the Civil War the South produced most of the presidents. Memories of the war made it impossible for a southerner to become president unless he moved North (like Woodrow Wilson) or was a vice president who moved up (like Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson). In 1976 Jimmy Carter became the first Southerner to break the pattern since Zachary Taylor in 1848. With one exception (Ronald Reagan), all the presidents since 1976 had their political base in the South.

Other politicians and political movements

In addition to Presidents, the South has also produced numerous other well-known politicians and political movements.

In 1948, a group of Democratic congressmen, led by Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, split from the Democrats in reaction to an anti-segregation speech given by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, founding the States Rights Democratic or Dixiecrat Party. During that year's Presidential election, the party unsuccessfully ran Thurmond as its candidate.

In 1968, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace ran for President on the American Independent Party ticket. Wallace ran a "law and order" campaign similar to that of Republican candidate, Richard Nixon. While Nixon won, Wallace won a number of Southern states. This inspired Nixon and other Republican leaders to create the Southern Strategy of winning Presidential elections. This strategy focused on securing the electoral votes of the U.S. Southern states by having candidates promote culturally conservative values, such as family issues, religion, and patriotism, which appealed strongly to Southern voters.

In 1994, another Southern politician, Newt Gingrich, ushered in a political revolution with his Contract with America. Gingrich, then the Minority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, created the document to detail what the Republican Party would do if they won the that year's United States Congressional election. The contract mainly dealt with issues of governmental reform (such as requiring all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress). Almost all Republican candidates in the election signed the contract and for the first time in 40 years the Republicans took control of the U.S. Congress. Gingrich became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving in that position from 1995 to 1999.

A number of current Congressional leaders are also from the South, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

Culture

Southern culture has been and remains generally more socially conservative than that of the north. Due to the central role of agriculture in the antebellum economy, society remained stratified according to land ownership. Rural communities developed strong attachment to their churches as the primary community institution.

Lifestyle

The southern lifetsyle, especially in the deep south, is often joked about. Southerners are often generally viewed as more laid back, and relaxed even in stressed situations. That, of course, is a stereotype, and not always the case. But, traditionally, the southern lifestyle is viewed as slower paced when in more rural areas.

Religion

The South, perhaps more than any other region of an industrialized nation, has a high concentration of Christian adherents, resulting in the reference to parts of the South as the "Bible Belt", due to the prevalence of evangelical or fundamentalist Protestants (as well as Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.). The region is often stereotyped as being somewhat intolerant of other religious faiths or of the non-religious. Southern churches evangelize more than churches in other regions, which many non-Protestants consider hostile, but few southerners question the actual freedom of worship or non-worship.

In addition, there are significant Catholic populations in most cities in the South, with larger concentrations in cities such as New Orleans, whereas areas like Arkansas and Mississippi have stronger concentrations of Baptists. Cities such as Miami, Atlanta and Houston have significant Jewish and Islamic communities. Immigrants from Southeast Asia and South Asia have brought Buddhism and Hinduism to the region as well.

Southern dialect

Southern American English is a dialect of the English language spoken throughout the South. Southern American English can be divided into different sub-dialects (see American English), with speech differing between, for example, the Appalachian region and the coastal area around Charleston, South Carolina or the "low country" around Savannah, Georgia. The South Midlands dialect was influenced by the migration of Southern dialect speakers into the American West. The dialect spoken to various degrees by many African Americans, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), shares many similarities with Southern dialect, unsurprising given that group's strong historical ties to the region.

The Southern American English dialect is often stigmatized, as are other American English dialects such as New York-New Jersey English. However, in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the Southern dialect. Additionally, linguists contend that some Southern dialects more closely mirror Elizabethan (Early Modern / Shakespearean) English than other accents in the United States.[5]

Cuisine

As an important feature of Southern culture, the cuisine of the South is often described as one of its most distinctive traits. The variety of cuisines range from Tex-Mex cuisine, Cajun and Creole, traditional antebellum fare, all types of seafood, and Texas, Carolina & Memphis styles of Barbecue. Then there is, of course, the ever-popular fried chicken. Non-alcoholic beverages of choice include "sweet tea," and various soft drinks, many of which had their origins in the South (e.g. Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Dr Pepper. In many parts of Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and other parts of the South, the term "soft drink" is discarded in favor of "Coke"). Pale lagers are generally preferred to heavier/darker beers due to the predominance of hot climate. Texas is also the center of a burgeoning wine boom, due to its climate and well drained limestone based soils, particularly in the Texas Hill Country.

Traditional African-American Southern food is often called "soul food"; in reality there is little difference between the traditional diet of Southerners and the diet in other regions of the U.S.A. Of course, most Southern cities and even some smaller towns now offer a wide variety of cuisines of other origins such as Chinese, Italian, French, Middle Eastern, Thai, Japanese, and Indian as well as restaurants still serving primarily Southern specialties, so-called "home cooking" establishments.

Tobacco

The South was distinctive for its production of tobacco, which earned premium prices from around the world. Most farmers grew a little for their own use, or traded with neighbors who grew it. It was the main cash crop in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland. Commercial sales became important in the late 19th century as major tobacco companies rose in the South, becoming one the largest employers in cities like Durham, NC and Richmond, VA. In 1938 R.J. Reynolds marketed eighty-four brands of chewing tobacco, twelve brands of smoking tobacco, and the top-selling Camel brand of cigarettes, which had to compete with Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes, and eventually Old Golds. Reynolds sold large quantities of chewing tobacco, though that market peaked about 1910 as people shifted to cigarettes.Nannie M. Tilley, The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 1985 p. 363. In the late 20th century, use of smokeless tobacco by adolescent American males increased by 450% for chewing tobacco and by 1500%, or fifteen-fold, for snuff. From 1978 to 1984, there was a 15% compound annual growth rate in U.S. smokeless tobacco sales. Usage is highest in the South and in the rural west. In 1992, 30% of all male high school seniors in the southeastern United States were regular users of chewing tobacco or snuff--more than smoked cigarettes, according to the Center for Disease Control. [6][7]

A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in the region where it was grown, paying close attention to class and gender: A History of the United States since the Civil War Volume: 1. by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer; 1917. P 93.

The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This habit had been widespread among the agricultural population of America both North and South before the war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the chewer spat upon his lands without offence to other men, and his homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these receivers, but very often without the careful aim which made for cleanly living. Even the pews of fashionable churches were likely to contain these familiar conveniences. The large numbers of Southern men, and these were of the better class (officers in the Confederate army and planters, worth $20,000 or more, and barred from general amnesty) who presented themselves for the pardon of President Johnson, while they sat awaiting his pleasure in the ante-room at the White House, covered its floor with pools and rivulets of their spittle. An observant traveller in the South in 1865 said that in his belief seven-tenths of all persons above the age of twelve years, both male and female, used tobacco in some form. Women could be seen at the doors of their cabins in their bare feet, in their dirty one-piece cotton garments, their chairs tipped back, smoking pipes made of corn cobs into which were fitted reed stems or goose quills. Boys of eight or nine years of age and half-grown girls smoked. Women and girls "dipped" in their houses, on their porches, in the public parlors of hotels and in the streets.

Literature

The South has a strong literary history. Characteristics of southern literature including a focus on a common southern history, the significance of family, a sense of community and one's role within it, the community's dominating religion and the burden religion often brings, issues of racial tension, land and the promise it brings, and the use of southern dialect.

Perhaps the most famous southern writer is William Faulkner, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. Faulkner brought new techniques such as stream of consciousness and complex narrative techniques to American writings (such as in his novel As I Lay Dying).

Other well-known Southern writers include Mark Twain (whose Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are two of the most read books about the South), Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Thomas Wolfe, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, James Dickey, Willie Morris, Tennessee Williams and Walker Percy. Possibly the most famous southern novel of the 20th century is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1937. Another famous southern novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, won the Pulitzer Prize after it was published in 1960.

Music

The South offers some of the richest music in the United States. The musical heritage of the South was developed by both whites and blacks, both influencing each other directly and indirectly.

The South's musical history actually starts before the Civil War, with the songs of the African slaves and the traditional folk music brought from Britain and Ireland. Blues was developed in the rural South by Blacks at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, gospel music, spirituals, country music, rhythm and blues, soul music, bluegrass, jazz (including ragtime, popularized by Southerner Scott Joplin), beach music, and Appalachian folk music all were either born in the South or developed in the region.

Zydeco, Cajun, and swamp pop, though never reaching the popularity of the preceding genres across the region, remain popular throughout French Louisiana and periphial regions (including Southeast Texas). These unique Louisianian styles of folk music are celebrated as part of the traditional heritage of the people of Louisiana.

Rock n' roll began in the south as well. Early rock n' roll musicians from the south include Hank Williams (Alabama), Johnny Cash (Arkansas), Buddy Holly (Texas), Bo Diddley and Elvis Presley (Mississippi), Ray Charles and James Brown (Georgia), Carl Perkins (Tennessee), and Jerry Lee Lewis (Louisiana) among others. Chuck Berry, sometimes considered the most important early rock n' roll figure along with Elvis, is from St. Louis, Missouri, a state that is sometimes considered Southern, and a city with an undeniable Southern influence, largely due to its large African American population and location on the Mississippi River.

Many who got their start in show business in the South eventually banked on mainstream success as well: Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton are two such examples. Recently, the spread of rap music (which is arguably the only major American music not started in the South) has led to the rise of the sub-genre Dirty South, among others.

Sports

Football

The South is known for its love of football. While the South has had a number of Super Bowl winning National Football League teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins, the region is noted for the intensity with which people follow non-professional teams -- especially the Southeastern Conference, which is one of the strongest conferences in all of college football, and the Atlantic Coast Conference. High school football is extremely competitive, particularly in Texas, and especially in smaller communities it is often elevated to near-religion status. The University of Alabama is disputedly tied with Notre Dame for the most (12) NCAA National Football Championships. The South is also noted for the multitude of great football players that it produces including (recently) Brett Favre, Shaun Alexander Peyton and Eli Manning, Deuce McAllister, Jamal Lewis, and many others such as legends Emmitt Smith and Reggie White

Basketball

Basketball, particularly college basketball, is also very popular in the South, especially in North Carolina and Kentucky; the two states are home to four of the most storied college basketball programs: the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils,Louisville Cardinals, and the Kentucky Wildcats. The college game is especially popular in the home states of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The region is also home to several NBA teams and almost all of the NBA Development League teams.

Baseball

Baseball is also very popular in the South, with Major League Baseball teams like the Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins being recent World Series victors. Minor league baseball is also closely followed in the South (with the South being home to more minor league teams than any other region of the United States), and college baseball is particularly popular in Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina with Miami, LSU, Clemson , and University of South Carolina almost always ranked in the top 20. LSU is also one of only 4 schools to win 5 national championships.

NASCAR

The South is also the birthplace of NASCAR auto racing. Other popular sports in the South include golf (which can be played year-round because of the South's mild climate) and fishing.

Other sports

The South would not seem to be a prominent winter-sports destination, but the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes have all won the Stanley Cup in recent years. In addition, the mountains of West Virginia and the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina have a wintry-enough climate to host several popular downhill skiing resorts. Atlanta, Georgia was the host of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Film

The South has contributed to some of the most-loved and financially successful movies of all time, including Gone with the Wind (1939) and Smokey and the Bandit (1977). The Dukes of Hazzard remains a very popular television show nearly thirty years after its inception. All were set in Georgia with other places in the South also featured prominently. Several major motion pictures have been filmed in Memphis, Tennessee in recent years, including Mystery Train (1989), Great Balls of Fire! (1989), Memphis Belle (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Firm (1993), A Family Thing (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Cast Away (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Hustle & Flow (2005), Walk the Line (2005), Forty Shades Of Blue (2005), and Black Snake Moan (2007).

The second largest studio complex in the United States, EUE Screen Gems, is located in Wilmington, North Carolina. Over the past 20 years, many films and television programs have been made on location in Eastern North Carolina. [8]

Cultural variations

There continues to be debate about what constitutes the basics elements of Southern culture.[9] This debate is influenced, in part, by the fact that the South is such a large region. As a result, there are a number of cultural variations on display in the region.

Among the variations found in Southern culture are:
* Areas having an influx of outsiders may be less likely to hold onto a distinctly Southern identity and cultural influences. For this reason, urban areas during the Civil War were less likely to favor secession than agricultural areas. Today, due in part to continuing population migration patterns between urban areas in the North and South, even historically "Southern" cities like Atlanta and Richmond have assimilated regional identities distinct from a "Southern" one.
* Some regions of Texas are associated with the South more than the Southwest (primarily East Texas), while other regions share more similarities with the Southwest than the South (primarily West Texas and South Texas). The northwestern part of the state has much in common with parts of the United States that are considered Midwestern. The size of Texas prohibits easy categorization of the entire state—as a whole—in any recognized region of the United States; geographic, economic, and even cultural diversity between regions of the state preclude treating Texas as a region in its own right. (See: Geography of Texas)

[[Image:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.jpg|400px|thumb|right|{{Plurality}} ancestry per US county, 2000: German English NorwegianFinnishDutch Mexican Spanish Native "American" AfricanIrish FrenchItalian ]]
* Before its statehood in 1907, Oklahoma was known as "Indian Territory." The majority of the Native American tribes in Indian Territory sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Today, Oklahoma has a mostly Southwestern identity. Furthering the state's Southwestern identity is the fact that following California, it proudly has the nation's second largest Native American population. Oklahoma is also the home of Gilcrease Museum, which houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West plus Native American art and artifacts and historical manuscripts, documents, and maps. Oklahoma is frequently described as being part of the "Great Southwest." However, due to its geographic location, Oklahoma is privy to Southwestern, Midwestern, and Southern influences. This combination of regional influences is especially highlighted in Tulsa, Oklahoma's second largest city, which has a reputation for being a "cosmopolitan" city. Even still, Southern influence can still be found in Oklahoma, particularly in the southeastern region of the state, but the influence becomes less apparent as you move north and west of this area. On a whole, most consider Oklahoma to be a Southwestern and not a Southern state.
* Southern Louisiana, having been colonized by France and Spain rather than Great Britain, has different cultural traditions, especially within the Cajun, Creole, Latin American and Caribbean influenced culture of southern Louisiana. Importantly, the Gulf Coast regions of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and northern Florida also share a similar French/Spanish colonial history but lack the heavy concentration of French influences present in Louisiana, especially from the Cajuns and their descendants.
* Florida has had rapid population growth due to retirees and Jewish Americans from the North and immigrants from Latin America. Miami, Florida has become more a part of the culture of the Caribbean, with a large influx of immigrants from Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and other parts of Latin America. While South Florida is seen by many as not truly part of the South (or in some cases, not even a part of Anglo-America, but rather a Latin American region) in terms of culture, the Florida Panhandle, northeastern areas, North Central Florida, Nature Coast, and Central Florida remain culturally tied to the South. An unofficial "Southern line" can be drawn at or just north of Tampa, Florida on the state's west coast and stretching through Lakeland, Florida over to Melbourne, Florida on the state's east coast; below this line, the culture of the areas can be described as much more "Northern". However, two notable exceptions to the "Southern Line" are the city of Palm Coast, (one of the fastest growing cities in the United States and with most of its growth coming from New York and New Jersey), and the Orlando metropolitan area, which contains many more retirees and immigrants from the North as well as a growing Hispanic population. Also, the middle of South Florida (that is, the "inland" areas around the Lake Okeechobee and Everglades region) remain very culturally tied to the South and agriculture and ranching (rather than tourism) remain staples of the economy there.
*While West Virginia is often defined as a southern state, its peculiar geographic shape means that the northernmost tip is at about the same latitude as central New Jersey. This has caused the northernmost part of the state, which is about an hour's drive from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to increasingly become an exurb of the city, resulting in a less "Southern" culture. The easternmost tip of the state is close enough to Washington, DC that it too has started to become an exurb of that area with a unique North-South "hybrid" culture (in fact, the two easternmost counties, Berkely and Jefferson, are considered part of the Washington Metropolitan Area by the Census Bureau). A visitor to Huntington, near the state's boundary with Ohio and Kentucky, would likely identify the area as part of the Rust Belt, (even though it is not officially considered part of the Rust Belt), but they would also notice that the area has more of a Southern climate and environment compared to the state's Northern Panhandle. Also, West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the Civil War and remained loyal to the Union; thus, purists do not consider West Virginia to be part of the South.
*Many do not consider Delaware to be a Southern state. Some do not consider Maryland despite the fact that many parts of the state especially Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore are very Southern in history and culture. Also Maryland was settled by the same groups who colonized Virginia. Cultural designation is disputed due to proximity to both North and South.
* Northern Virginia has been largely settled by Northerners attracted to job opportunities resulting from expansion of the federal government during and after World War II. Still more expansion resulted from the Internet boom around the turn of the 21st century. Economically linked to Washington, D.C., residents of the region tend to consider its culture more Northern, as do Southerners. However, it remains politically somewhat more conservative, as opposed to Washington's suburbs across the Potomac River in Maryland, which are generally politically liberal.
* The most recent shift in "Southern" cultural influence and demographics has occurred in North Carolina. As recently as the mid-1980s, this was a very entrenched "Southern" state culturally and demographically (for example, the prominence of extremely conservative politicians such as former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)). However, many newcomers have transformed the landscape since then. Surprisingly many are from the Northeast and especially from the New York metropolitan area. Three regions have seen the bulk of this migration: the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham areas due to economic growth (banking/finance in Charlotte's case, high-tech in Raleigh-Durham's); and the Asheville area/western North Carolina by retirees who a generation ago might have moved to Florida but prefer the climatic balance produced by the combination of a relatively high elevation and a southerly latitude. The most extreme example of this is found in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb in the Raleigh-Durham area that has exploded in population since 1980 almost exclusively with Northern transplants to the region. Cary has even been turned into an backronym by locals: "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees". Politically the state is still conservative (the 2004 presidential election was easily won by George W. Bush, though early exit polling had the race much closer than initially expected), but in the Raleigh-Durham area and to a lesser extent the Charlotte area, "Southern" accents are becoming less common; and urban areas in central North Carolina (like Raleigh-Durham and the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point "Piedmont Triad" area) have experienced the fastest rise in Latino and Asian American population of any part of the Southeast during recent years. To a much lesser degree, the same effect is occurring in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
*Southern Illinois, notably (Little Egypt and Buda), forms a coherent cultural region with the Missouri Bootheel, east Missouri, and Kentucky's Purchase. This does not mean that it is Southern in culture, but that it shares more in common with these border regions than with the Upper Midwest.
*Although Missouri is often considered a Midwestern state, the Ozarks are typically lumped in with the Highland South, while Little Dixie in north-central Missouri is an outlier of Lowland Southern culture.

Race relations

African Americans have a long history in the South, stretching back to the early settlements in the region. Beginning in the early 17th Century, black slaves were purchased from slave traders who brought them from the Caribbean (or, less often, directly from Africa) to work on plantations. Most slaves arrived in the 1700-1750 period. (for more information, see History of slavery in the United States).

Slavery ended with the South's defeat in the American Civil War. During the Reconstruction period that followed, African Americans saw major advancements in the civil rights and political power in the South. However, as Reconstruction ended, Southern Redeemers moved to prevent black people from holding power. After 1890 the Deep South disfranchised nearly all African Americans (who did continue to vote in the Border states). The leading white demagogue was Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina, who proudly proclaimed in 1900, "We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." (Logan, p. 91)

With no voting rights and no voice in government, blacks were subjected to what was known as the Jim Crow laws, a system of universal segregation and discrimination in all public facilities. Blacks were given separate schools (in which all students, teachers and administrators were black). Most hotels and restaurants served only whites. Movie theaters had separate seating; railroads had separate cars; buses were divided forward and rear. Neighborhoods were segregated as well. Blacks and whites did shop in the same stores. Blacks were not called to serve on juries, and they were not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary elections (which usually decided the election outcome).

In Black Boy, an autobiographical account of life during this time, Richard Wright writes about being struck with a bottle and knocked from a moving truck for failing to call a white man "sir" (Wright, Chapter Nine). Between 1889 and 1922, the NAACP calculates that lynchings reached their worst level in history, with almost 3,500 people, two-thirds of them black men, murdered.[10]

In response to this treatment, the South witnessed two major events in the lives of 20th century African Americans: the Great Migration and the American Civil Rights Movement.

The Great Migration began during World War I, hitting its high point during World War II. During this migration, Black people left the racism and lack of opportunities in the South and settled in northern cities like Chicago, where they found work in factories and other sectors of the economy. (Katzman, 1996) (However, Chicago quickly became the most segregated city in the north.) This migration produced a new sense of independence in the Black community and contributed to the vibrant Black urban culture seen during the Harlem Renaissance.

The migration also empowered the growing American Civil Rights Movement. While the Civil Rights movement existed in all parts of the United States, its focus was against the Jim Crow laws in the South. Most of the major events in the movement occurred in the South, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, the March on Selma, Alabama, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. In addition, some of the most important writings to come out of the movement were written in the South, such as King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail".

As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow laws across the South were dropped. Today, while some people believe race relations in the South to still be a contested issue, many others now believe the region leads the country in working to end racial strife. It cannot be ignored that the South has a significantly larger black population than any other region of the country. As proof of this, some people cite the fact that a second Great Migration appears to be underway, with African Americans whose ancestors left the South two generations ago moving back to the region in record numbers. Other examples of the improving racial situation in the South are the successful 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia and the fact that there have been few race riots in the South since the 1960s (whereas there have been a few in both the Northern United States and the Western United States, the most recent examples of which were the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 2001 Cincinnati riots).

Symbolism of the South

The "Rebel Flag" of the Confederacy has become a highly contentious image throughout the United States. Although it and other reminders of the Old South can be found on automobile bumper stickers, on tee shirts, and flown from homes, restrictions (notably on public buildings) have been imposed as a result of activism and boycotts.

Neo-confederate groups such as the League of the South continue to promote secession from the United States, citing a desire to protect and defend the heritage of the South. On the other side of this issue are groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which believes that the League of the South is a hate group.

Other symbols of the Antebellum South such as the Bonnie Blue Flag, Magnolia trees, and Palmetto trees, are met with less controversy.

Today's South: "The New South"

In the last two generations, the South has changed dramatically. After two centuries in which the region's main economic engine was agriculture, the South has in recent decades seen a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. Examples of this include the surge in tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast; numerous new automobile production plants such as Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the BMW production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina; the two largest research parks in the country, Research Triangle Park in North Carolina (the world's largest research park) and the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama (the world's fourth largest research park); and the corporate headquarters of major banking corporations Bank of America and Wachovia in Charlotte, North Carolina. Also, the creation of computer programming and communications companies (such as the Cable News Network, which is based in Atlanta) have helped to fuel the "New South" economy. This economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to boast some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States.[11]

Major metropolitan areas

*Not in all definitions of the South|- |-

Rank	Metropolitan Area	Population	State(s)
1	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington	5,819,475	Texas
2	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach	5,422,200	Florida
3	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown	5,280,077	Texas
4	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria*	5,214,666	District of Columbia-Virginia-Maryland
5	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta	4,917,717	Georgia
6	Baltimore*	2,655,675	Maryland
7	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater	2,647,658	Florida
8	Orlando-Kissimmee	1,933,255	Florida
9	San Antonio	1,889,797	Texas
10	Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News	1,647,346	Virginia
11	Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord	1,521,278	North Carolina-South Carolina
12	Austin-Round Rock	1,452,529	Texas
13	Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro	1,422,544	Tennessee
14	New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner	1,363,750	Louisiana
15	Memphis	1,260,905	Tennessee-Arkansas-Mississippi
16	Jacksonville	1,248,371	Florida
17	Louisville	1,208,452	Kentucky
18	Richmond	1,175,654	Virginia
19	Birmingham-Hoover	1,090,126	Alabama
20	Raleigh-Cary	949,681	North Carolina\|-	21	Baton Rouge	751,965	Louisiana
22	El Paso	721,598	Texas
23	Columbia	689,878	South Carolina
24	McAllen-Edinburg-Mission	678,275	Texas
25	Greensboro-High Point	674,500	North Carolina
26	Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice	673,035	Florida
27	Knoxville	655,400	Tennessee
28	Little Rock-North Little Rock	643,272	Arkansas
29	Charleston-North Charleston	594,899	South Carolina
30	Greenville	591,251	South Carolina

*Richard N. Current, et. al, American History: A Survey, 7th ed., New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
* David M. Katzman, "Black Migration," in The Reader's Companion to American History, Houghton Mifflin Co. (accessed July 6, 2005); James Grossman, "Chicago and the 'Great Migration'," Illinois History Teacher 3, no. 2 (1996), (accessed July 6, 2005).
*US Census Bureau region map, retrieved 9 April 2006
*US Census Bureau metropolitan area statistics, retrieved 9 April 2006 (Table 3a)

Southern United States: Encyclopedia BETA

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