I'm sure that someone out there has drawn a mental picture that could be strikingly similar to me, when trying to conjure up a mental image of the "Old South." I certainly have dreamed of this romanticized time and place. If such a thing existed as the Old South, then One must wonder what the New South is. The following is a guest post, addressing this tricky concept, by my friend, Erin Z. Bass, editor of online magazine Deep South.
The term “New South” isn’t all that new. It’s been used since the Civil War to describe the region’s attempt to put forth a new face to the rest of the world. As the “old South” system of plantations and slavery gave way to diversification toward factories and technology, several people helped to coin the term and shape its meaning. Henry Grady was a journalist for the Atlanta-Constitution who proclaimed in an 1886 speech: “There was a South of slavery and secession—that South is dead. There is now a South of union and freedom—that South, thank God, is living, breathing, and growing every hour.” Booker T. Washington also spoke out for a different kind of South. As the first leader of Tuskegee Institute, he enlisted the support of wealthy white philanthropists to aid in the construction of schools and colleges to educate African Americans.
During the Civil Rights Movement, “New South” once again applied to the times, as the region struggled with desegregation and voting rights. But after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, the South was forced to renew itself and try to convince the rest of the country it wasn’t just a backwards, racial place.
As lingerings of the Ku Klux Klan and candidates like David Duke still exist, so do big business, a move toward cultural tourism and Civil Rights sites now viewed as destinations in the current “New South.” Atlanta is home to world headquarters of Coca-Cola, Turner Broadcasting and AT&T; Birmingham remains a manufacturing hub and is also home to the world-class Civil Rights Institute; and Louisiana, especially the cities of New Orleans and Shreveport, has been dubbed “Hollywood South” because of its booming movie business.
The Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a great example of how cities can marry their pasts with current conditions. An interactive museum that explores the diverse history of the South, the Levine’s award-winning permanent exhibit, “Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers: Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont in the New South” is the most comprehensive interpretation of post-Civil War Southern history in the nation. Six different environments within the exhibit take visitors from a one-room tenant farmers house to sitting at a lunch counter during a sit-in.
Showing at the museum through November is “Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor,” which explores the continuing evolution of the region. Wall text reads: “For most of its history, the South was America’s poorest region. People left the South to seek opportunity. But since the 1970s, that’s changed.” Charlotte is now a culturally diverse place with more newcomers arriving daily, so the exhibit explores communication barriers, stereotypes and cultural traditions of multicultural residents. 
Charlotte’s Levine presents exhibits that are relevant throughout the South and issues that affect all of us living here today. It seeks to bring these issues to the forefront, thus jumpstarting conversation, discussion and new ways of thinking about what the South has become. The term “New South” may seem overused at this point, but it’s still popping up in conversation, business names and popular culture. Georgia State University’s Journal of Art & Literature is called new south. New South, Inc. is an Alabama-based book publishing company, specializing in books on Southern history and culture. And the New Southern View Ezine claims to be Mississippi’s first online magazine.
In a recent Deep South interview with Georgia author Joshilyn Jackson, she also used the term when asked what it means to be a Southern writer. “I love the idea of the New South, but I worry about what babies we are throwing out with the abominable bathwater,” she said. “The culture, for good and ill, is being washed away and homogenized … I want to catalog this place, these people, truthfully, with all our glory and grace and all our awfulness intact before it’s gone.”
Jackson brings up an interesting point about whether or not sprucing up our old ways of doing things means we’ll no longer be described as unique, quaint or eccentric. We certainly don’t want to lose the designation of being eccentric. There are a lot of people in a lot of states working hard to ensure that we maintain, and promote, our history—good or bad—foodways and cultural traditions. But it’s up to us, the people who live here, to tell the rest of the world about “our South” and why they should see it for themselves.
Online magazine Deep South aims to capture current life in the South while also harking back to the history and traditions of an area known for its culture, color and style. Deep South is a product of the "New South," bringing readers news, stories, literature, travel opportunities and events from several Southern states in a format that is completely digital and uses social media to connect with readers. Editor Erin Z. Bass lives in her home state of Louisiana and enjoys taking day and weekend road trips to neighboring states and cultural destinations around the South.
