Defend democracy in the South.

25 Voices for Change

By The Editors / March 1, 1999

This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 27 No. 1, "25th Anniversary Edition." Find more from that issue here.

How has the South changed in the last 25 years? Or has it really changed at all? And what would it take to make a better South than we have today?

To help answer these questions, we asked 25 leading Southern “change-makers” — from activists to academics, poets to politicians — to give us their view from the trenches. We asked each to write on two themes: How has the South changed, and what have those of us interested in progressive change gained in the last 25 years? And second, what are the key challenges we face for creating a better South in the next 25 years?

The following are what these 25 change-makers had to say:

Julian Bond

Probably the most important gain we’ve made [in the last 25 years] is the understanding of the necessity for coalition. I think that understanding was always there, but as we go along, it just gets hammered home more and more.

“A New Crusade for Racial Justice”

Since Southern Exposure began 25 years ago, we have lived through a counter-revolution in this country. The magazine began, I think, in that glow of hope carried over from the upsurges of the ’60s. The anti-war movement, new labor organizing, the women’s movement, struggles of lesbians and gays and the disabled were gaining strength. Surely, many people thought, we could achieve our goal of a truly democratic South very soon.

“Lay Claim on Tomorrow”

At the outset, let me applaud the hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and persons who contributed time, money, ideas, art, poems, jokes, photographs, and visions of a better world that have filled Southern Exposure’s pages since day one. Southern society has been changed, but not nearly as much as we can. Let’s continue to lay claim today on tomorrow.

“Facing the Right’s “Divide and Conquer” Strategy

As a Southern, out, black lesbian, social justice advocate, I see two very specific challenges/opportunities that lie ahead of us. The first is how the Southern lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) movement can position itself to make social change history by working on issues about sexual orientation and at the same time work for social and economic justice — thus becoming a multi-issue and multi-racial movement.

Sermon: “Finding and Telling the Truth Takes Persistent Spirits”

The struggle. The movement. The revolution. If someone were to ask me what these words mean, I’d say it’s a smile. It’s the fire in my stomach and the grin on my face when I hear James Brown sing, “Say it out loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!!” or Aretha singing, “FREEDOM!” or Bob Marley proclaiming, “Thru the powers of the Most High we keep on surfacing!” Nothing makes me happier than reading or singing or hearing the truth. That’s what a movement is about — connecting to something larger than yourself that means hope.

The Chilling Effect of Repression

As we reflect on the previous period and consider prospects for the future, looking back 100 years — instead of 25 — may be more helpful in examining North Carolina in particular, and the South in general. Nov. 10th, 1998, marks the 100th anniversary of the Wilmington Massacre — a coup d’état in Wilmington, North Carolina, that was the culmination of a state-wide white supremacist campaign to end a government led by a multi-racial progressive coalition. Untold numbers were killed, houses and businesses were burned to the ground, and thousands were forced to flee the city.

From Segregation to Privatization

The South, home to 34% of the nation’s population, is also home to 48% of the nation’s poverty. Some 30% of Southerners live in “poverty areas,” compared to 19% in the West, 17% in the Midwest, and 15% in the Northeast. At the same time, the South is home to 53% of the nation’s African-American population. Despite New South/Sun Belt boosterism, these data depict the South as the largest contiguous belt of poverty in the nation.

“Cease building walls, begin building bridges”

Some people think that it is naïve to be optimistic about the future of the South. Some think that it is unrealistic. I disagree. I am optimistic about the South primarily because it makes sense. Twenty-five years ago the South was not nearly as prosperous as it is today, and the racial and class divisions were so sharp that one could be easily lacerated by rubbing against either in the effort to moderate the divisions. Indeed, class and race were blurred largely because if one didn’t work to one’s advantage, the other just might. And one of them just had to!

“Times that call for uncommon courage”

The Institute for Southern Studies [which publishes Southern Exposure] is an organization I passionately believe in because it is a vessel of struggle, a ragged band of true believers, and a kick-ass resource that gave me an understanding of the true breadth of my heritage growing up white and poor in the hills of Kentucky. From this experience I was clued in to the beloved community of the civil rights movement, the deep American wellspring of the blues, and the roots solidarity ethos of the labor movement — Miles Horton, Langston Hughes, Hazel Dickens, B.B.

“A Sense of Place”

Twenty-five years ago, astronauts bravely probed the unknown in space, but Southern newspapers were afraid to examine the maneuverings of their towns’ power barons. Most publishers, part of the local establishment, had skeletons to hide, and too many editors embraced a very limited notion of democracy. Atlanta Constitution editor Ralph McGill, who won national praise for criticizing integration, was still defending America’s war against Vietnam when the Institute for Southern Studies began.

“It’s not enough to be progressive — we must be aggressive!”

An important gain for Southern progressive struggles over the last few years has been a sharper focus on fighting the target, rather than fighting each other. The Powers That Be, both economic and political, have long succeeded in splitting us apart — black from anglo, rural from urban, poor from nearly poor.

Race: “The Old Categories are Inadequate”

Growing up in South Carolina, my community of Southern-born, white-skinned, Cuban-Americans consisted of my brothers and two cousins. Of course, none of us understood at the time that we presented a challenge to traditional Southern notions about race. But we did understand what and who these notions and labels permitted us to be.

“The Fight Is for Control”

The passage of the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation brought the illusion of freedom and inclusion for African-Americans. It didn’t bring the reality. While changes in technology that would be impossible to even dream of 25 years ago has happened, there hasn’t been the kind of change in uplifting humanity in the world that we did dream of.

Political disenfranchisment: “One of the next civil rights issues”

I believe the South is very important to the country, as an indicator of where we’re going, or where we need to be going, and at the same time, a reminder of where we’ve been. Within my life-time my parents experienced denial of access to public facilities, and while that kind of thing only rarely happens today, there is at least legal recourse. My parents had no legal recourse.

“Try to live our vision”

What has the movement for change in the South gained in the last 25 years? When I was starting out as an activist over 20 years ago, there was a lot of emphasis on what we were doing without much attention paid to how we were doing it. Focusing on the “win” at the expense of people in the organization; perpetuating racism or sexism in how we did our work; exploitation or manipulation of those being served; fear of standing up for gay rights because it would cost us our “legitimacy” were some common problems.

“Yours in the Struggle”

I was watching an MTV special recently about the history of rhythm and blues. I was washing dishes and couldn’t see the screen so I couldn’t tell whether it was Curtis Mayfield or someone talking about him. Whoever it was made the outrageous claim that Mayfield’s “message” music made the movement happen. A stronger case could be made for the SNCC Freedom Singers, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, Guy Carawan, Pete Seeger, Bernice Reagon, the Free Southern Theater, or even Bob Dylan. All of these were among those involved in and committed to the movement.

“I Think of Bulldozers and Republicans”

When I think of the changes that have happened in the South over the past 20 years, I think of the place where I grew up. I spent the first 18 years of my life on a farm six miles northeast of Lawrenceville, Georgia, in a community called Hog Mountain. Until the early 1970s, that small community was fairly stable, church and school-centered, and sparsely populated with working-class white people who traveled to Atlanta to work on assembly lines or who worked small farms and businesses. It was yellow-dog Democratic, except for the renegades who defected to Barry Goldwater in the 1960s.

“And I Come Singing!”

Today I live in the nation’s capital as the group I formed in 1973, Sweet Honey in the Rock, celebrates 25 years. I am aware more than ever that my work as a singer and composer is based in the Southern expression of African-American culture. My sense of being a black cultural Southerner comes from being born in southwest Georgia and from my first work as an activist in Albany, Georgia, during the Civil Rights Movement as a field secretary for SNCC (the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee), and more specifically as a member of the SNCC Freedom Singers.

The Southern Paradox

To be Southern is to inhabit a paradox.

“There’s a growing sense of pride”

In terms of the culture itself, there’s a lot more activism in the Latino community, throughout San Antonio. The mayor we have now, many city council people, people in the school districts — they are Hispanics.

Inclusion, coalitions, and power

Gains: In Appalachia and the upper South we are more conscious of the need to overcome racism in our organizing. Even ten years ago, groups in parts of Appalachia said, “There’s less than one percent blacks in our counties.” That was supposed to explain all-white groups. Now, organizing groups talk about their attempts to diversify their memberships. The old response is no longer acceptable. Oh, happy day!

“I’m More Determined than Ever”

Sometimes young African agents of social, economic, environmental, and political change in the South feel like the Children of Israel, just out of physical bondage, wandering in the wilderness, trying to find the promised land. Questioning, doubting, and wondering about what we have truly gained. This feeling became familiar to me again when I started thinking about the “gains” we’ve made over the last 25 years.

“The issues are now geared toward economics”

As one who was reared in the South, I have noticed some changes that have been very critical and crucial to the dynamics of the South that we live in,” says Hollis Watkins. “There are now a large number of blacks who are registered to vote. In light of that, there are a large number of blacks who hold political offices. You also have a large number of blacks who are attorneys and are business professionals. Plus, there is now a substantial number of blacks who are able to go to predominantly white universities.”

“It feels like, just to be able to sustain life is a victory!”

When I look back on what kinds of changes I see, what has been a gain is that . . . we have slowly been developing more interrelationships, more sense of vision. I can’t say all of [the left] is visionary and linked, but there has been much more motion in that direction. I would say there are many more connections now, with people understanding the nature of capitalism, and being able to talk about it — which back then we could not, openly. You look back at the language, the language was very careful in those days.

“Mass, non-violent direct action: it keeps us close, and it works”

The beginning of Southern Exposure came just a short time after my unexpected discovery of a radical tradition in Southern history. The early issues of the magazine nurtured my fascination and identification with that alternative tradition and educated me in its dreams, struggles, victories, and losses.

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