New South

New South or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, in whole or in part. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.

Origins

The term has been used with different applications in mind. The original use of the term "New South" was an attempt to describe the rise of the South after the Civil War. The antebellum South was largely agrarian and sought to preserve its cultural identity in departing from the Union, which led to the irrepresible conflict. After the war, the South was impoverished and seemed to be in great need of an alternative economy. The New South was no longer to be dependent on banned slave labor or predominantly upon the raising of cotton, but rather industrialized and part of a modern national economy. Henry W. Grady made this term popular in his articles and speeches as editor of the Atlanta Constitution. One way of envisioning the New South were the socialist Ruskin Colonies.^[1] The historian Paul Gaston^[2] coined the specific term "New South Creed" to describe the hollow promises of white elites like Grady that industrialization would bring prosperity to the region.

The New South campaign was championed by Southern elites often outside of the old planter class, in hopes of forming partnerships with Northern capitalists in order to strengthen the social, political and economic status quo of the South. They in turn expected to situate themselves as equals to northern investors. From Henry Grady to Booker T. Washington, New South advocates wanted southern economic regeneration, sectional reconciliation, racial harmony and their idea of the gospel of work.

For many years, this "New South" was more of a slogan of Chambers of Commerce and similar civic-booster organizations than a reality in many areas. Racial conflict during the Civil Rights Movement gave the south a backward image in popular culture. But in the 1980s and 1990s, the black population was enfranchised and represented in many political offices. In the post World War II era, American textiles makers and other light industry moved en masse to the South, so as to capitalize on low wages, social conservatism, and anti-union sentiments.^[3] With the industrialization of the South came economic change, migration, immigration and population growth. Light industry moved offshore but has been replaced to a degree by auto manufacturing, tourism and energy production. In light of the many changes that have occurred since the Civil War, many now use the term in a celebratory sense

Twentieth Century

Civil rights

The beginnings of the Civil Rights era in the 1950s led to a revival of the term to describe a South which would no longer be held back by Jim Crow laws and other aspects of compulsory legal segregation. Again, the initially slow pace of the Civil Rights era reforms, notably in the areas of school desegregation and voting rights, at first made the "New South" more of a slogan than a descriptions of the South as it was; the Civil Rights Act of 1964^[4] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 brought an era of far more rapid change.

Politics

For over 100 years, from before the Civil War until the mid-1960s, the Democratic Party exercised a virtual monopoly on Southern politics (see also Solid South). Thus elections were actually decided between Democratic factions in primary elections (often all-white); the Democratic nomination was considered to be tantamount to election.

The "New South" period is double-edged. After the passage of civil rights legislation, African Americans began to vote in number. They were generally affiliated with the Democratic Party, as presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had supported their cause, and many had admired Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the same time, in 1964 several Southern politicians, and states, supported Republican Barry Goldwater for President over the Democratic incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson. In what later became a trend, some switched party affiliations, notably Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Richard Nixon's Southern strategy in the 1968 campaign is thought by many to have vastly accelerated this process. From Nixon's time to the present, the South has generally voted Republican at the presidential level.

The term "New South" has also been used to refer to political leaders in the South who embraced progressive ideas on education and economic growth and minimized racial rhetoric, even if not promoting integration. This term was most commonly associated with the wave of Southern governors elected in the late 1960s and 1970s, including Terry Sanford in North Carolina, Jimmy Carter in Georgia, and Albert Brewer in Alabama.^[5][6]

Similarly, the term "New South" was also used to refer to areas of the South that have become more diverse and cosmopolitan over the last several decades. This also caused these areas to become more Democratic over time. Barack Obama won Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina, three of the South's biggest states, in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.

Geography

The term "New South" is also sometimes used geographically, to denote the South Atlantic states, in contrast to the East South Central and West South Central states. The former have grown considerably more cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse in recent decades, and many observers maintain that they now comprise a distinct geocultural subregion. One prominent example of the use of "New South" in this context was in the 1991 book The Day America Told The Truth, which divided the South as a whole into the "moral regions" of the New South and Old Dixie.

Economy

Charlotte Skyline at night

Richmond Skyline at night

The "New South" is also meant to describe the economic boom in the southern part of the U.S., compared to the loss of jobs in the Midwest. U.S.-owned auto manufacturers in cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and St. Louis have declined while lower wage, non-unionized work forces in the South have attracted foreign manufacturers. For example, two of the largest banks in the USA -- Bank of America and Wachovia (now a subsidiary of California's Wells Fargo) -- are headquartered in Charlotte; automobile manufacturers BMW, Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and Volkswagen have opened plants in states such as Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Mississippi.

References

See also

• Deep South
• Border States
• Solid South
• Sun Belt

External links

• Newsweek: Report on the New South (with videos)