Whistle Down to Dixie

Why we can’t ignore Southern inequality.

By Steven White, Hampshire College

In his much-discussed recent book Whistling Past Dixie, political scientist Thomas Schaller argues progressive political goals are impossible to achieve in the South because racism leads the region’s white population to consistently vote Republican in every major election. He cites favorable demographic trends in other parts of the country—such as the growing number of Latino voters in the West—as a reason to leave the South behind in electoral politics.

But progressives need to pay attention to the South precisely because of its biases. The South is the poorest part of the country, and anti-gay and anti-reproductive freedom sentiments can feel pervasive there. This makes it hard for progressives to win elections, but progressivism must be about more than party politics. Electoral victories aside, progressives can help organize unions, promote living wage referenda, and support organizations working against the severe discrimination LGBT communities and other stigmatized groups face in the South. Struggling for justice and fairness in the region will never be easy, but it is a goal in line with the values of the progressive movement.

“If you care about economic justice, how can you not care about the South?” asks Reverend Rebekah Jordan of Memphis. Birmingham gay rights activist Howard Bayless told Campus Progress, “We have to be active in places like Alabama. Until the needle moves here, you’re not going to have marriage [equality] everywhere.”

When it comes to establishing a real progressive agenda for America, whistling past Dixie just isn’t a viable option. In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt declared the South to be the nation’s number one economic problem. This is still true today. The South has the nation’s highest poverty rate, at 14 percent. Large chunks of the region are rural, where impoverished residents can be isolated from things like advanced medical treatment facilities and well-funded public libraries. Not helping matters is the region’s anti-union “right to work” laws and the accompanying lowest unionization rate in the country.

United for a Fair Economy (UFE) Executive Director Meizhu Lui told Campus Progress that UFE’s research on U.S. economic inequality is clear: the South stands out as the region with the most egregious inequality, which is also a civil rights concern. Half of all African Americans call the South their home. “There’s something going on here that we really need to understand better,” Lui said.

She and others at UFE started exploring the South in 2006, often traveling through the region and meeting with local organizations. This led Lui to an NAACP convention in Louisiana where she was invited to lead a workshop. There, she started to better understand the central role played by religion and churches in progressive movements in the South. “Rather than being at a civil rights gathering, it felt like I had fallen smack dab into the middle of a revival tent,” she said. “Every single speaker was a minister and biblical stories abounded in everybody’s speeches. Even though the topic was justice, it was all about the Bible.”

Indeed, religion plays a role in southern culture unlike anywhere else in the country. But progressives should be open to possibilities of working with Southern communities of faith. The Midsouth Interfaith Network for Economic Justice’s stated mission is to “partner with people of faith in order to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions.” They recently finished a successful living wage campaign for city employees and are trying to pass similar legislation in other counties. Jordan, the organization’s executive director, said local government officials are often caught in a mindset that because conditions are already worst in the South, residents must settle for less. Working against such defeatism is difficult, but Jordan said she is hopeful when she sees low wage workers standing up for injustice at the risk of losing their jobs because they want to better conditions for themselves and others.

The struggle for gay rights in the region is just as difficult. Last November, South Carolina residents voted to add an amendment to their constitution banning gay marriage by a 56 point margin. Not to be outdone, Tennesseans did the same by a staggering 62 points. In 2004, legislators in Rhea County, Tenn.—where the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial” took place—tried to pass legislation actually banning gay people from living in the county. This continued for a few days until the county’s board, hounded by negative media attention, dropped the measure.

According to gay rights activist Bayless, board chair of Equality Alabama, this kind of homophobia is responsible for many gay southerners being closeted. Gay rights organizing in the state is a relatively recent phenomenon. Although Bayless said progress toward gay marriage and civil unions in New England is important, progressives cannot forget those places where progress is slower. “It’s going to take a progressive movement, state by state, changing attitudes and supporting incremental changes,” he said.

Bayless said he sees signs of hope, though. Alabama residents recently elected their first openly gay legislator, Patricia Todd of District 54, to the Alabama House of Representatives. Equality Alabama and other progressive organizations are currently working to amend the state’s hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Bayless said he is also beginning to hear from more local residents who support his work.

Unfortunately, the uphill battle required for progressive organizing in the South often turns people off. “Choosing this route is difficult,” UFE’s Lui said. “Progress is slower, which makes it hard to find folks that will invest resources in the South. They want to see immediate results.”

So what can progressives who think they are up to the task do to make change in the South? Jordan, the Memphis reverend, said respecting local grassroots organizations is essential. “I think it’s important that Southerners really take the lead in fashioning a lot of these solutions,” she stated. Lui agreed. Northerners “need to put aside their notions of superiority,” she said. “People have to give themselves the time to listen and learn before they figure out what they can do to help.” Progressives “need to recognize some of the leading work for equality has come out of the South.”

Progress in the South will only occur if people around the country start paying real attention to the region. Even then, it will be slow, difficult, and frustrating. But this is no excuse for national progressives to ignore it. The extent of racism, poverty, homophobia, sexism, and other social ills is so great in the South that many people assume it is impossible to change. But as Jordan told Campus Progress, “These kinds of attitudes can actually be one of the biggest hindrances to changing things because they keep people from taking action.” So despite all the talk of leaving the South behind, progressives need to be careful not to fall into this trap. After all, if progressives really care about justice, how can they not care about a region in which it is so often denied?

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