Southern history

• 
• SOURCE: Hedgehog Review
  4/10/2020
  

  Left Behind: The Trouble with Euphemism

  by Nancy Isenberg

  A historian of white rural poverty says that the cultural phenomenon of JD Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy" is just the latest deployment of the "left behind" euphemism to obscure the nature of poverty in the United States. The rural poor are and have been part and parcel of the American economic order.

• 
• SOURCE: WNYC
  3/31/2021
  

  What a Unionization Effort in Alabama Could Mean for the Labor Movement

  Historian Keri Leigh Merritt discusses the Amazon unionization vote in the context of southern labor history.

• 
• SOURCE: FrankNews
  3/26/2021
  

  Interview: A Rich Man's War, A Poor Man's Fight

  Historian Keri Leigh Merritt, interviewed about the history of labor organizing in the South, links the history of Southern policing to the maintenance of exploitative labor practices after the Civil War and explains how the fight to unionize Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama facility extends the politics of the Civil Rights Movement.

• 
• SOURCE: Facing South
  3/11/2021
  

  The PRO Act Would Undo Decades of Southern Anti-Union Laws Rooted in Racism

  by Olivia Paschal

  By overriding state "right to work" laws and allowing unions to collect the equivalent of dues from non-members, the PRO Act passed by the House would undo a political movement that both squelched labor organizing in the South and maintained white supremacy. 

• 
• SOURCE: USA Today
  3/12/2021
  

  Rice is a 'Frequent Visitor' at Tables in the South, A New Cookbook Digs Up the Complicated Way it Got There

  Food historian and chef Michael Twitty examines the cross-cultural and transatlantic history of rice in Southern cooking and culture. 

• 
• SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  3/2/2021
  

  Georgia’s Center of Political Gravity Shifting Toward Atlanta

  "As Georgia transforms from a Republican stronghold to the nation’s premier battleground state, a seismic geographic shift is underway."

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  2/23/2021
  

  'We Deserve More': An Amazon Warehouse’s High-Stakes Union Drive

  Historians Joseph McCartin, Michael Innis Jiménez, and Kerri Leigh Merritt discuss the historic union drive at Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama center and where it fits in the history of labor and civil rights in the south. 

• 
• SOURCE: Bitter Southerner
  2/18/20201
  

  Forgotten Camps, Living History: Japanese Internment in the South

  by Jason Christian

  Camp Livingston, deep in the Louisiana pines, used to be the site of a World War II Japanese internment camp. Drawing from the memories of internees, the research of two Louisiana State University librarians and other historians, and the activism of survivors and their descendants, this story uncovers a buried piece of American history.

• 
• 1/24/2021
  

  Trump Inflamed the American "War of Sections." What Comes Next?

  by Steve Suitts

  2020 shows the south is arguably still the key region in American politics, but it may not be a stronghold of white conservative politics for long. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  1/10/2020
  

  Black Southerners are Wielding Political Power that was Denied their Parents and Grandparents

  While the voter mobilization efforts that tipped Georgia's senate races to the Democrats have been much-discussed, they capitalized on a long-term shift in the Black population to the urban and suburban south, a "reverse great migration" that will be politically consequential for years to come. 

• 
• SOURCE: Reckon South
  1/11/2021
  

  Capitol Riot: The 48 Hours that Echoed Generations of Southern Conflict

  Hours after Mississippi legislators took the final step of removing a Confederate emblem from their state banner, a violent white mob waved the Stars and Bars as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/8/2020
  

  Even if Georgia Turns Blue, North Carolina may not Follow

  by Michael Bitzer and Virginia Summey

  North Carolina's politics have long been characterized by a competition between fairly evenly balanced forces of conservatism and moderation. Democrats who hope to permanently tip the state in their favor are likely to be disappointed. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/17/2020
  

  Despite Everything, People Still Have Weddings at ‘Plantation’ Sites

  Despite claims by many estates that weddings and events pay for educational programming that addresses the history of slave labor on the property, many still debate the ethics of using plantation properties for celebrations. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/30/2020
  

  A Counter to Confederate Monuments, Black Cemeteries Tell a Fuller Story of the South

  “We put up these Confederate monuments in public squares as a homage to a lost cause that was really a lie. But the real builders of the cities and the states and the nation, their narrative is still not told.”

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  9/22/2020
  

  How the Welfare State Became the Neoliberal Order (Review)

  by Pablo Pryluka

  Although the Tennessee Valley Authority was a pioneering public works project, its alumni worked in Latin America to advance redevelopment projects that elevated the authority of big business, a model now associated with the neoliberal turn in the developed world. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  9/1/2020
  

  The New Southern Strategy

  The rise of a new generation of Black mayors in Southern cities may signal a new political dynamic as municipal governments draw energy from protest movements and improvise ways to meet public needs, if conservative state governments don't stop them. 

• 
• SOURCE: WUNC
  8/26/2020
  

  Civil War And Southern Charm: How Hollywood Takes On The South (audio)

  Film experts Marsha Gordon and Laura Boyes talk about watching films that gloss over the darker parts of Southern history, but they also explore how more contemporary films resonate with viewers as true to their own experiences.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/23/2020
  

  The South’s Fight for White Supremacy

  by Jon Meacham

  Edward Alfred Pollard launched the "Lost Cause" mythology with an 1866 book whose legacy has endured as an emphatic defense of white supremacy.

• 
• SOURCE: Scalawag
  8/3/2020
  

  John Lewis’ Legacy: Four Southern States are Still Battling for Voter Rights

  John Lewis lived to see the birth and dismantling of voting rights that he fought and bled for.

• 
• SOURCE: Nashville Tennessean
  7/30/2020
  

  Southern Newspapers were Vocal Supporters of the Confederacy. It Lasted for Generations

  For most of American history, newspapers in the South supported the people and systems that promoted and maintained prejudice and discrimination.