New South
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{{otheruses7|the residence hall at [[Georgetown University]]|New South Hall|the Country band|New South (band)}}
[[Image:Atlanta, Panorama bei Nacht.jpg|thumb|Atlanta]]
'''New South''' or '''New South Creed''' is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the [[American Civil War]] to describe the [[Southern United States|American South]], in whole or in part. The term "New South" is often used in contrast to the [[Old South]] 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 a South after the Civil War which would no longer be dependent on now-outlawed [[slavery|slave]] labor or predominantly upon the raising of [[cotton]], but rather a South which was also [[industrialization|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 Journal-Constitution|Atlanta Constitution]]''. One way of envisioning the New South were the [[socialist]] [[Ruskin Colonies]].<ref>Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. ''A Socialist Utopia in the New South: The Ruskin Colonies in Tennessee and Georgia, 1894-1901.'' University of Illinois Press, 1996.</ref> The historian Paul Gaston<ref>Paul M. Gaston. ''The New South Creed: A Study in Southern Mythmaking.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.</ref> 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 a partnership 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 [[Chamber of Commerce|Chambers of Commerce]] and similar civic-booster organizations than a reality in many areas. Racial conflict during [[Civil Rights Movement]] gave the south a backward image in popular culture. But in the 1880s and 1890s, American industry moved en masse to the south, so as to capitalize on low wages, social conservatism, and anti-union sentiments.<ref>Brenner, Robert. "[http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2652 Structure vs. Conjuncture: The 2006 Elections and the Rightward Shift]," ''[[New Left Review]]'' 43, 2006: 33-59. p. 48 </ref> With the industrialization of the south has come economic growth, immigration and population growth. 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 [[Racial segregation|segregation]]. Again, the initially slow pace of the Civil Rights era reforms, notably in the areas of school [[desegregation]] and [[voting rights in the United States|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]] 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 (United States)|Democratic Party]] exercised a virtual monopoly on Southern politics (see also [[Solid South]]). Thus elections were actually decided between Democratic factions in [[primary election]]s (often all-[[whites|white]]); the Democratic nomination was considered to be tantamount to election.
The "New South" period in this context began in 1964 when several Southern politicians, and states, supported [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Barry Goldwater]] for [[President of the United States|President]] over the Democratic incumbent [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Some, in what later became a trend, switched party affiliations, notably [[Strom Thurmond]] of [[South Carolina]]. [[Richard Nixon]]'s [[Southern strategy]] in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1968|1968 campaign]] is thought by many to have vastly accelerated this process. Since 1980 the South has voted Republican at the Presidential level except when the Democratic nominee is from the South, in which case several states may be competitive.
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 also minimized racial rhetoric if not promoting integrationalist stances. 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]] and [[Albert Brewer]] in [[Alabama]].<ref>
A Question of Justice: New South Governors and Education, 1968–1976. By Gordon E. Harvey. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002. x, 229 pp.)</ref><ref name="NewSouth">{{cite web|url=http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/04/sanford.html|title=Terry Sanford and the New South|date=2007-04-03|publisher=Duke University News|accessdate=2008-06-11}}</ref>
===Geography===
The term "New South" is also sometimes used geographically, to denote the [[South Atlantic States|South Atlantic]] states, in contrast to the [[East South Central States|East South Central]] and [[West South Central States|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 divides the South as a whole into the "moral regions" of the New South and '''Old Dixie'''.
===Economy===
[[Image:Skylinecharlotte2.jpg|right|thumb|290px|[[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]] Skyline at night]]
[[Image:RichmondVa-NightSkyline.jpg|right|thumb|290px|[[Richmond, Virginia|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. Economic centers of the US have shifted away from cities like [[Detroit]], [[Cleveland]], [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], and [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] to southern cities like [[Atlanta]], [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]], [[Nashville]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], and [[Houston]]. For example, two of the largest banks in the USA -- [[Bank of America]] and [[Wachovia]] -- are headquartered in Charlotte; automobile manufacturers [[BMW]], [[Toyota]], [[Mercedes-Benz|Mercedes]], [[Honda]], [[Hyundai]], and [[Nissan]] have opened plants in states such as [[Alabama]], [[South Carolina]], [[Tennessee]], and [[Mississippi]]; Behind [[New York]], Houston has the second-most [[Fortune 500]] companies in the nation, and Atlanta is third. Only five metro areas in the country have more Fortune 500 companies than the [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] area. The [[The Triangle (North Carolina)|Raleigh]] and [[Huntsville, Alabama]] areas are home to two of the largest research parks in the world.
==References==
<references/>
==See also==
* [[Old South]]
* [[Deep South]]
* [[Border states (Civil War)|Border States]]
* [[Solid South]]
* [[Sun Belt]]
[[Category:Southern United States]]
[[Category:Regions of the United States]]