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Southern United States

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: North American Geography

   Southern United StatesThe 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 Oklahoma, which was
   Indian Territory at the time, a slave territory).
   Enlarge
   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 Oklahoma, which was Indian Territory at
   the time, a slave territory).

   The Southern United States or the South constitutes a distinctive
   region covering a large portion of the United States. Because of 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, jazz, bluegrass,
   rock 'n' roll and blues), and cuisines.

Geography

   As defined by the United States 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: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North
       Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia (plus the
       District of Columbia);
     * The East South Central States: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and
       Tennessee;
     * The West South Central States: 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.

   Other definitions include:
     * The Old South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
       Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
       Texas, and Virginia;
     * Southern Appalachia: Kentucky and West Virginia;
     * The Deep South: various definitions; and
     * The Gulf South: various definitions.

   The popular definition of the "South" is more informal and is generally
   associated with those states that seceded during the Civil War to form
   the Confederate States of America. Those states share commonalities of
   history and culture that carry on to the present day. The "border
   states" of the Civil War- specifically Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland,
   and Delaware roughly form the northern boundary of the "South". These
   states have a history of straddling the North-South divide, which was
   made clear when they did not secede during the Civil War even though
   they allowed slavery. Depending on the context, these states may or may
   not be considered part of the South. West Virginia is a unique case
   since it seceded from Virginia out of reluctance to join the
   Confederacy and retains a sense of independence; whether it is
   culturally part of the South again depends on context and on what
   distinction is drawn between Appalachian and Southern culture.

   Biologically, the South is a vast, diverse region, having numerous
   climatic zones, including alpine, temperate, sub-tropical, tropical,
   and 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 landscapes characterized by the
   presence of live oaks, magnolia trees, yellow jessamine vines, and
   flowering dogwoods. Another common environment is the bayous and
   swampland of the Gulf Coast, especially in Louisiana. The South is a
   victim of kudzu, an invasive fast-growing vine which covers large
   amounts of land and kills indigenous plant life.

History

   The predominant 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 groups of
   Scots-Irish settled in Appalachia and the Piedmont. These people
   engaged in warfare, trade and cultural exchanges with the Native
   Americans already in the region (such as the Creek Indians and
   Cherokees). After 1700, large groups 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 made the "peculiar institution" of
   slavery an integral part of the South's early 19th century economy.

   The oldest university in the South, College of William and Mary, was
   founded in Virginia; it pioneered in the teaching of political economy
   and educated future U.S. Presidents Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler, all
   from Virginia. Indeed, the entire region dominated politics in the
   First Party System era, as typified by Presidents Washington,
   Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.

   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 harbour, 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 continued to escalate in the following decades.

Civil War

   By 1850, the South 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 1861—with the delegations from the Confederacy absent
   from Congress—they 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. In
   1861, they 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,
   triggering the Civil War. In the four years of war which followed, the
   South found itself as the primary battleground, with all but two of the
   main battles taking place on Southern soil. The Confederacy retained a
   low tariff regime for European imports but imposed a new tax on all
   imports from the North. 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 Union (so-called because they fought for the United States of
   America) eventually defeated the Confederate States of America (the
   formal name of the southern American states during the Civil War). The
   South suffered much more than the North, primarily because the war was
   fought almost entirely in the South. Overall, the Union had 95,000
   killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease, for a total of
   260,000, out of a total white Southern population at the time of around
   5.5 million.

Reconstruction

   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 and other forms of violence and intimidation to keep African
   Americans from exercising their political rights (the well-known cross
   burnings did not become a Klan ritual until the emergence of the Second
   Ku Klux Klan in the 1930s), 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.

20th century

   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 Wall Street Crash of 1929, the economy suffered
   significant reversals and millions were left unemployed. 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. Thousands left the region
   forever to seek economic opportunities along the West Coast.

   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. The South was noted by
   President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the "number one priority" in
   terms of need of assistance during the Great Depression, 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.

Culture

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

   The southern lifestyle, 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", from the
   prevalence of evangelical or fundamentalist Protestants (especially
   Baptists, and also Methodists, Presbyterians, and others). The region
   is often regarded as being somewhat intolerant of other religious
   faiths or of the non-religious, however in recent years most residents
   are now increasingly becoming tolerant of other faiths. 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.

   There are significant Catholic populations in most cities in the South,
   with larger concentrations in cities such as New Orleans, St. Louis and
   Louisville whereas areas like Arkansas and Mississippi have stronger
   concentrations of Baptists. Cities such as Miami, Atlanta, Louisville
   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.

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, with speech differing between, for example, the
   Appalachian region and the coastal area around Charleston 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, shares many
   similarities with Southern dialect.

   Folkorists in the 1920s and later argued that Appalachian language
   patterns more closely mirror Elizabethan English than other accents in
   the United States.

Cuisine

   The cuisine of the South is often described as one of its most
   distinctive traits. But just as history and culture varies across the
   broad region known as the South, the traditional cuisine varies as
   well. In modern times, there is little difference between the diet of
   typical Southerners and the diet in other regions of the U.S, but the
   South draws on multiple unique culinary influences to form its
   "traditional" foods. "Southern Cuisine" also provides some of the best
   examples of distinctly American cuisine - that is, foods and styles
   that were born in the United States as opposed to adopted from
   elsewhere.

   The food most commonly associated with the term "Southern Food" is
   often called " soul food" and is characterized by the heavy use of
   high-calorie lards and fats. This style is often attributed to
   influence of the African-American slave population though it draws the
   mix of African influences as well as Native American, Scots-Irish, and
   others. Southern fried chicken, vegetables cooked in lard or fat,
   black-eyed peas, cornbread, and biscuits are just a few examples of
   foods typically lumped into this broad category.

   Barbecue is a food typically associated with the South. Consisting of
   meat that has been slow-cooked and heavily seasoned, it is
   characterized by sharp regional divides in style-preferences. In Texas
   it is often beef based. In the Carolinas it is typically pork based and
   further subdivided into Eastern and Western Carolina styles. Kansas
   City and Memphis are also considered Barbecue hubs, drawing on styles
   from multiple areas.

   The unique history of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta provides a
   unique culinary environment as well. Cajun and Creole evolved from the
   broad mix of cultural influences in this area - including Acadian,
   African, Caribbean, French, Native American, and Spanish.

   Texas and its proximity and shared history with Mexico ultimately
   helped give rise to the modern Tex-Mex cuisine.

   Many of the most popular American soft drinks today originated in the
   South ( Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Dr Pepper). In
   addition, there are some soft drinks available only in the South to
   this day, demonstrating its instrumental history in developing these
   types of drinks. A highly sweetened iced tea, typically called sweet
   tea is also associated with Southern cuisine.

   As with most of America, a wide variety of cuisines of other origins
   are now available throughout the South, 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, North Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, and
   Richmond, Virginia. 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. Reynolds sold large quantities
   of chewing tobacco, though that market peaked about 1910 as people
   shifted to cigarettes.

   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 Centre
   for Disease Control.

   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:

     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

   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, Truman Capote 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, Appalachian folk music and forms of Heavy Metal, 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 peripheral 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. Early rock n' roll musicians from the
   south include Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley,
   Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, James Brown, The Allman Brothers Band,
   Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among
   others. Chuck Berry, sometimes considered the most important early rock
   n' roll figure along with Elvis, is from St. Louis, Missouri.

   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.

   Many of the roots of alternative rock are often considered to come from
   the South as well, with bands such as R.E.M. and The B-52's forever
   associated with the musically fertile college town of Athens, Georgia.

   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

   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 football
   teams—especially the SEC and the Atlantic Coast Conference, and also
   the Big 12. High school football is extremely competitive. 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, Derrick Brooks, Shaun Alexander, Peyton and Eli
   Manning, Deuce McAllister, Jamal Lewis, Clinton Portis, Herschel Walker
   Michael Vick and many others such as legends Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice,
   Reggie White, and Walter Payton.

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 winningest college basketball programs: the
   North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils, Louisville Cardinals,and
   the Kentucky Wildcats. The region is also home to several NBA teams and
   almost all of the NBA Development League teams.

Baseball

   Baseball's popularity is often tied to 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, Mississippi, and South
   Carolina with the Miami Hurricanes, Texas Longhorns, LSU Tigers,
   Clemson Tigers, and South Carolina Gamecocks almost always ranked in
   the Top 20. LSU is also one of only four universities to win five
   national championships (winning all five in less than a decade). The
   Texas Longhorns have won six national championships, winning its last
   one in 2005.

NASCAR

   The South is the birthplace of NASCAR auto racing. It has an enormous
   and devoted following. Almost all drivers are from the South, and North
   Carolina seems to be the centre of Nascar. North Carolina hosts two
   major races and the Hall Of Fame in Charlotte.

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 National Hockey League's Stanley Cup in recent years. In
   addition, the mountains of West Virginia and the western parts of
   Virginia and North Carolina climates cold enough to host several
   popular downhill skiing resorts. Atlanta 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.

Cultural variations

   There continues to be debate about what constitutes the basics elements
   of Southern culture. This debate is influenced partly because 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 favour
       secession than agricultural areas. Today, partly because of
       continuing population migration patterns between urban areas in the
       North and South, even historically "Southern" cities like Atlanta,
       Charlotte, 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 and North Texas), while other
       regions share more similarities with the Southwest than the South
       (primarily West Texas and South Texas). The Texas Panhandle 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 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.

   Plurality ancestry per US county, 2000: German English Norwegian
   Finnish Dutch Mexican Spanish Native "American" African Irish French
   Italian
   Enlarge
   Plurality ancestry per US county, 2000: German English Norwegian
   Finnish Dutch Mexican Spanish Native "American" African Irish French
   Italian
     * 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, following California, it 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, because of its geographic location,
       Oklahoma is privy to Southern culture. 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 Southern state.

     * South 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. 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
       Acadians and their Cajun descendants.

     * Florida has had rapid population growth of 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 Daytona
       metropolitan area, which contains many more retirees and immigrants
       from the North. 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, D.C., that it too has
       started to become an exurb of that area with a unique North-South
       "hybrid" culture. The two easternmost counties, Berkely and
       Jefferson, are considered part of the Washington Metropolitan Area
       by the Census Bureau. Huntington, West Virginia, near the state's
       boundary with Ohio and Kentucky, is often identified with the Rust
       Belt, (although it is not officially considered part of the Rust
       Belt), but it also has more of a Southern climate and environment
       compared to the state's Northern Panhandle. 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.

     * Delaware is not considered to be a southern by many, especially the
       northern third of the state, which is essentially the outermost
       portion of the Philadelphia region. Maryland remains southern in
       Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, but the areas along the
       I-95 corridor, including metropolitan Baltimore and the state's
       suburbs of Washington, D.C., are culturally considered to be
       similar to that of the Northeastern United States. Like West
       Virginia, the state was part of the Union during the Civil War,
       partially because of immense pressure to remain so to avoid the
       District of Columbia from being completely surrounded by
       Confederate territory.

     * 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 dot-com bubble 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).
       However, many newcomers have transformed the landscape since then.
       Many are from the Northeast and especially from the New York City
       and Cleveland metropolitan areas. Much of this migration has
       occurred in the Charlotte and Raleigh- Durham areas because of
       economic growth (banking/finance in Charlotte's case, high-tech in
       Raleigh-Durham's); and the Asheville area 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.

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 rare for a Southern politician
   to be a Republican before the 1960s.

   Increasing support for civil rights legislation by the Democratic party
   at the national level during the 1940s caused a split between
   conservative Southern Democrats and other Democrats in the country.
   Until the passage of the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s, conservative
   Southern Democrats ("Dixiecrats") 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. An 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.

   The Democratic Party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues
   culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law
   the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning
   their Southern strategy, which aimed to solidify the Republican Party's
   electoral hold over conservative white Southerners. Southern Democrats
   took notice that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater
   had voted against the Civil Rights Act, and in the presidential
   election of 1964, Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home
   state of Arizona were in the states of the Deep South.

   The transition to a Republican stronghold took decades. First, the
   states started voting Republican in presidential elections—the
   Democrats countered by nominating 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 Republican 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 not been a distinct political demographic
   prior to 1980.

   There was major resistance to desegregation in the mid 1960s to early
   1970s. Those issues faded away, replaced by culture wars between the
   conservatives and liberals over issues such as separation of church and
   state, evolution, abortion, and gay marriage.

Presidential history

   Each and every new political party fielding a Presidential candidate,
   has only been successful from being born in the South: Federalists
   claimed George Washington, from Virginia; Democratic-Republicans began
   with Thomas Jefferson, from Virginia; Democrats began with Andrew
   Jackson, from South Carolina/Tennessee; Whigs began with William Henry
   Harrison, from Virginia; Republicans began with Abraham Lincoln,
   originally from Kentucky.

   Before the Civil War, the South produced most of the U.S. 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

   The South has 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 the 1968 Presidential election, 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 several 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 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.

   Numerous current Congressional leaders are from the South, including
   Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Senate Majority Whip
   Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Race relations

History

   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 Africa(or, less often, from the Caribbean) to work on
   plantations. Most slaves arrived in the 1700-1750 period.

   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."

   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 wrote about being struck with a bottle and knocked from
   a moving truck for failing to call a white man "sir". 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.

Civil Rights

   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 Civil Rights Movement. While
   the 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 many 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. A second
   migration appears to be underway, with African Americans from the North
   moving to the South in record numbers.

Symbolism

   The " Rebel Flag" of the Confederacy has become a highly contentious
   image throughout the United States because of its use as a symbol of
   defiance by many in the South who opposed the Civil Rights Movement.
   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 Centre (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.

Present image

   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, and Regions Financial,
   Amsouth, and Compass in Birmingham. 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.

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
   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 Oklahoma City* 1,225,084 Oklahoma
   18 Louisville- Jefferson County* 1,208,452 Kentucky- Indiana
   19 Richmond 1,175,654 Virginia
   20 Birmingham- Hoover 1,090,126 Alabama
   21 Raleigh- Cary 949,681 North Carolina
   22 Tulsa* 887,715 Oklahoma
   23 Baton Rouge 751,965 Louisiana
   24 El Paso 721,598 Texas
   25 Columbia 689,878 South Carolina
   26 McAllen- Edinburg- Mission 678,275 Texas
   27 Greensboro- High Point 674,500 North Carolina
   28 Sarasota- Bradenton- Venice 673,035 Florida
   29 Knoxville 655,400 Tennessee
   30 Little Rock- North Little Rock 643,272 Arkansas
   31 Charleston- North Charleston 594,899 South Carolina
   32 Greenville 591,251 South Carolina

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