The American Civil War (1861-65) was a dreadful affair. It pitted the Northern states (the Union) against the 11 Southern states of the Confederacy.
Still Fighting the Civil War
The Confederacy may have lost on the battlefield, but many Southerners still feel they should not have surrendered. A lot of these Americans are members of The League of the South and they don’t like the federal government – they don’t like it one little bit. Here’s a statement on the group’s website: “…Abe Lincoln and his minions have sired a long line of domestic terrorists, including most recently George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama (and all who aid them in their misrule). We might throw the larger part of Congress into the mix as well.”
The League and its supporters want to separate from the Union. On October 4, 2007, The Associated Press quoted the group’s president J. Michael Hill as saying: “We believe that an independent South…would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity.”
Right-Wing Conservatism
The League of the South is unrelentingly conservative in its views. Among its core values are:
- “…our primary allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church.
- “Our strongest and most enduring earthly affections and allegiances are to…family, friends, neighbours, villages, towns, cities, counties, and States. Conversely, our weakest attachments are to far-off abstractions such as ‘the nation,’ ‘the environment,’ or the ‘global community.’ ”
- The group says that Southern culture “must be nurtured and preserved for future generations of Southerners.”
- They say they rejoice in the fact that it “has neither been the will of God Almighty nor within the power of human legislation to make any two men mechanically equal.”
- “…Christ is the head of His Church; husbands are the heads of their families; parents are placed over their children; employers rank above their employees; the teacher is superior to his students, etc.”
The League of the South opposes: gay marriage; gun control; and, income tax on individuals and families.
Secession Plan in Place
These Southern views on issues tend to be a minority opinion in the U.S. as a whole. So, the League says let’s split and create “a significantly different country, more in keeping with the desires and the cultural lifestyles of a majority of Southerners.”
The League argues that, “The American South, culturally the most distinct region of the United States and once an independent nation, has the population and the economy to form one of the most powerful nations on Earth.” The League likes to define the South as the 11 states of the Confederacy, plus Kentucky and Oklahoma. The League says it has chapters in 16 Southern states.
It would be the 13th largest country in the world by population (74 million), and the fourth largest in terms of Gross Domestic Product.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a civil rights organization that keeps a close eye on white supremacists and hate groups. It says there is plenty of evidence that concerns it about the League of the South and other neo-Confederate associations.
J. Michael Hill founded the League of the South in 1994. The SPLC says, “The League of the South included four men with Ph.D.s on its board, along with Jack Kershaw, who was once active in the segregationist White Citizens Council in Nashville and who remains on the board today.
“Hill’s league started out complaining about the media treatment of white Southerners, but quickly developed into a racist group calling for secession, attacking egalitarianism, calling antebellum slavery ‘God-ordained,’ opposing racial intermarriage, and defending segregation as a policy designed to protect the integrity of both races.”
The Leagues denies such charges.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
Join the Conversation