Southern United States

The Southern United States or the South constitute a distinctive region covering a large portion of the United States. Due to the region's unique cultural and historic heritage, the South has developed its own customs, literature, musical styles (such as country music and jazz), and cuisine. The South has also been prominently involved in numerous issues faced by the United States as a whole, including slavery, the American Civil War, and Presidential politics (with the majority of the recent Presidents of the United States having come from the region).

Race relations

African Americans have a long history in the South, stretching back to the first settlements in the region. While some Blacks came to the South on their own and lived as free people, most were brought to work as agricultural slaves (for more information, see History of slavery in the United States).

Related Topics:
African American - Slaves - History of slavery in the United States

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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 politcal power in the South. However, as Reconstruction ended, Southern states moved to prevent black people from voting. Since most blacks still worked for whites, this could usually be done by threatening economic coercion. In addition, organized militias like the first Ku Klux Klan also threatened black voters with violence. (Current, pp. 457-458) As Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina proudly proclaimed in 1900, "We have done our level best ...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)

Related Topics:
American Civil War - Reconstruction - Civil rights - Whites - Ku Klux Klan - Ben Tillman - South Carolina - 1900

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With no voting rights and no voice in government, blacks were subjected to what was known as the Jim Crow laws, a brutal system of segregation and discrimination. Blacks could not go to the same schools as whites; they could not eat in the same restaurants, travel on the same train cars, live in the same neighborhoods, shop in the same stores. Nor could they serve on juries, which meant that they had little if any legal recourse.

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During the first half of the 20th century, Southern Whites could beat, rob, or murder Blacks at will for minor infractions (Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, pp. 160-165). 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, almost all of them black men, murdered.

Related Topics:
20th century - Black Boy - Richard Wright - 1889 - 1922 - NAACP

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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.

Related Topics:
Great Migration - American Civil Rights Movement

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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) 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.

Related Topics:
World War I - World War II - Chicago - Harlem Renaissance

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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 assasination 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".

Related Topics:
American Civil Rights Movement - Montgomery bus boycott - Freedom Summer - Selma, Alabama - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Letter from Birmingham Jail

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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 signifficantly 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 parents 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 number 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).

Related Topics:
Great Migration - 1996 Summer Olympic Games - Atlanta, Georgia - Race riot - 1960s - Northern United States - Western United States - 1992 Los Angeles riots - 2001 Cincinnati riots

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