Center for a Better South

The social history of the American South is like all histories: change, reaction to change, more change, more reaction. The South is perceived by most people as a conservative part of the country, the land of "red states" and rugged individualism.

Yet it has included a powerful strain of reform-minded politics fueled by people of many political persuasions. These were the abolitionists during slavery days, Reconstructionists after the Civil War, integrationists during the Jim Crow era and so-called progressives in recent decades.

Today, a new Charleston-based non-partisan public policy think tank, Cen- ter for a Better South, has taken up the banner of reform.

A little history

In those early years, they were Republicans -- scalawags -- who, after the Civil War, worked together with freedmen and Northern "carpetbaggers" to reconstruct the South after slavery.

In South Carolina, their numbers reached perhaps 100,000, about 15 percent of the white population.

They began to seize the reins of power. In the 1870s, many Republicans jumped ship, becoming conservative Democrats who opposed the scalawags, accusing them of corruption and worse.

A century later, history repeated itself. A sizable group of white politicians, rejoicing in the aftermath of civil rights victories, saw an opportunity to join with others and reconstruct the South once more.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed racial segregation and the 1965 Voting Rights Act that enfranchised blacks marked a new beginning that could usher in economic development and social harmony, one that could bring the South up to speed with the rest of the developed world, according to Alabama publisher H. Brandt Ayers and former Mississippi Gov. William F. Winter, who were part of the "New South" movement.

"The New South was a feeling, a moment of lightness," Ayers said. It was the moment when one civilization dies and another is born, he said. It was an opportunity to redefine the South, to break the seal of segregation. "It was our time. It was our moment."

This coalition included other Southern luminaries such as economics professor Thomas H. Naylor, journalist and politician W. Hodding Carter, author Jack Bass and historian-environmentalist Jim Leutze, a Charleston native.

These advocates of progressive reform established the L.Q.C. Lamar Society, named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a Georgia aristocrat who moved to Mississippi and became an influential statesman in the 1800s. They convened a meeting in 1969, the same year a slate of New South governors was elected across the region. These leaders -- Jimmy Carter of Georgia, Reubin Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, John West of South Carolina and Linwood Holton of Virginia -- set a new tone promoting integration and racial reconciliation, education improvements and economic development, Winter said at a symposium a few years ago.

The Lamar Society published a book-length series of essays called "You Can't Eat Magnolias," setting forth an explicit agenda for change.

Then, another backlash. Barry Goldwater signaled opposition to the dominant Democratic leadership and its agenda when, he emphasized "state's rights" while running for president in 1964. He became the first Republican to win the Deep South since Reconstruction. Then Richard Nixon launched his "Southern Strategy," which appealed to the anti-integration sentiments of Southern whites.

But the region did not lose the heart for change. The strain of reform-minded political activism has remained a constant in the South. Now, nearly 40 years after the birth of the New South, the Center has formed to pick up the mantle.

Eating magnolias

The Center for a Better South is made in the image of the L.Q.C. Lamar Society, and is "dedicated to developing progressive ideas, policies and information for thinking leaders who want to make a difference in the American South," writes Andy Brack, one of the founders.

Launched in 2005 after a North Carolina conference co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, the organization has published two books (on tax reform and environmental policy) and convened a three-day conference early last month at Davidson College in North Carolina to devise a working agenda for change in the South.

Brack said Better South's next publication likely will be a collection of essays based on this agenda and akin to the Lamar Society's "You Can't Eat Magnolias."

Leo Fishman, one of the principals of Better South and a resident of Kiawah Island, was born and raised in Massachusetts but has worked in the South since 1965, when he helped President Lyndon B. Johnson fight his "war on poverty."

A Harvard-educated lawyer, Fishman helped fund Head Start programs and set up economic development initiatives in the 1960s, then went on to launch a law practice that focused on helping nonprofits.

One of the South's strengths, he said, is its cultural identity.

"What you have is people with a good sense of who they are and where they belong," Fishman said. "When you accept that, there's good value in it."

Yet the region has higher crime and poverty rates than most other parts of the country, higher high school dropout rates, bigger health and economic disparities and ongoing racial tensions, he said.

"Southern children should have the same opportunities as all other children," Fishman said.

The challenge is addressing the South's deeply rooted problems without neglecting its cultural heritage. This can be difficult when the din of national debate drowns out those trying to affirm local values, he said.

Nevertheless, the common refrain of lower taxes, smaller government and individual responsibility simply is insufficient in addressing intransigent problems such as high poverty and crime rates, subpar public education, inadequate physical infrastructure and more, Fishman said.

"We've got to adopt a pragmatic course that promotes values that change the status quo without sacrificing our sense of community," Fishman said. It will require a commitment from political and community leaders, he added.

Self-respect

Ayers, longtime publisher of the Anniston Star in Alabama and co-editor with Tom Naylor of "You Can't Eat Magnolias," said political discourse in the South still is dominated by social issues that divide people rather than issues in which Southerners might find common cause.

What's more, he said, poor race relations remain a significant problem. And "heritage" often is used as an excuse for maintaining the status quo, Ayers said.

" 'Heritage' is fine if it spells self-respect, if it spells simple respect, the desire for respect, there is nothing wrong with it," he said.

What's needed is another "Nixon-in-China moment" when relations with that Far East powerhouse began to thaw, he said, or another Cairo speech when President Barack Obama invited reconciliation between Islam and the West, except this time it should be Obama who travels to Atlanta to address white Southerners.

Ayers said he is concerned about what he perceives to be a deepening, hard-to-cross chasm between the South and the rest of the country. Democrats and moderate Republicans are avoiding a region that they think has been hijacked by the extreme Republican fringe, he said. Obama might attempt to bridge the gap and encourage a long-needed reconciliation.

"Some cultural barriers would have to be detoxified first," Ayers said, but then the president might address the white South. He might affirm its culture and history. He might discourage isolationism and feelings of guilt or resentment. He might reach out a hand and describe a vision of America in which it is OK to join together and confront common challenges, Ayers said.

On track

Ayers said the Center for a Better South is on the right track, but that its "audience is not listening yet." It will require persistence, good ideas and dynamic leadership to galvanize the majority in the South that seeks improvement, he said. The region's problems affect everyone, he said.

Winter agreed, adding that matters of race continue to divide Southerners. He served on President Bill Clinton's advisory board on race relations in the late 1990s. Drawing on his experience as a New South legislator, lieutenant governor and governor of Mississippi, Winter, along with six others, produced four reports for the One America Initiative.

Bridges need to be built, dialogue pursued, he said. "The fact of the matter is, most people want the same thing: ... a good education for their children, a fair shot at a job, a decent house on a safe street, access to health care and dignity and respect. If we could come together on these very reasonable objectives, rather than fight along party lines, we could get to the place where the South needs to be."

Like-minded people across the region must join forces, he said. "What is the alternative? To sit back and let divisive ways dominate our future?"

Reach Adam Parker at 937-5902.