Old Times There Are Not Forgotten . . . But Will the South Secede Again?

Some spend their free hours researching their ancestors’ history and dressing in gray uniforms to relive their battles. Others are vigilant against “heritage violations” and wage lobbying and legal efforts on behalf of Confederate symbols.

Still others say if at first you don’t succeed, secede again.

“The long-term goal is to seek Southern independence,” said Michael Hill, a history professor who heads the League of the South, which recently met near Birmingham, Ala., in its fifth convention. “There are a number of different ways that can be achieved. Secession is one of them.”

Although such a notion might seem to have been put to rest 133 years ago when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Hill’s group is on the edge of a small but growing movement.

It could loosely be called the Southern heritage movement, encompassing a range of groups with differing missions.

Among them are the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a century-old organization dedicated to honoring ancestors. It has more than tripled its membership during the last decade to top 25,000.

The 5-year-old Heritage Preservation Assn. lobbies or fights in court for Southern ways and symbols, such as the Confederate battle flag. A few years ago, the association claimed more than 1,000 members; now they refuse to disclose membership.

The Alabama-based League of the South, which claims 7,000 members after starting with 40 in 1994, strives to promote and build Southern nationalism.

The Southern movement is active on the Internet, which is loaded with Web sites featuring information and opinion about Southern heritage. There are also numerous Southern newsletters, a shortwave radio show called “Dixie Rising,” and thriving businesses selling everything from “Legends in Gray” Confederate hero shirts to stars-and-bars underwear.

A bumper sticker, “It’s OK to be Southern again,” sums up the theme.

Much of the heritage groups’ growth can be attributed to a reaction against portrayals of white Southerners as benighted bigots and to a renewed interest in why their ancestors seceded.

Their common theme is that the victors distorted the history of the Civil War, which the Southern groups say had more to do with rebellion against Northern oppression than with slavery.

Lee Collins, an Atlanta computer software developer who heads the Heritage Preservation Assn., complained about what he called a “censorship of Southern heritage.”

An example he cites: a failed effort in Georgia to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state flag. His group uses political and legal actions to battle “heritage violations” that range from attacks on the flag to school rules against children wearing Confederate T-shirts.

Catherine Hunter Wise, a small-business owner in Alpharetta, Ga., who helps lead a group called the US/CS Military Women’s Assn., finds Civil War reenactments a way of “reconnecting with the past, a way of identification in a society that has become so homogenized.”

Chris Jackson, an active reenactor and leader of a Sons of Confederate Veterans group in Griffin, Ga., got involved after a friend introduced him to hunting for Civil War artifacts. That led Jackson to study the history of his Confederate ancestors.

“Maybe in the past I was a little embarrassed to be a Southerner,” said Jackson, 33, an airline mechanic who recalled New Yorkers making fun of him and his region. “Now I’m as proud as I can be of my roots.”

The Southern heritage movement may also reflect a growing concern that regional traditions are slowly being lost.

“The South is one of the few places that has any claim on a distinctive identity left,” said James Cobb, a University of Georgia history professor. “Some of this is Southerners standing on the street corner yelling, ‘We’re still distinctive!’ ”

The League of the South, with a scholar-dominated leadership, emphasizes protecting Southern culture and traditions, from church-going Sundays with sumptuous dinners to flying the battle flag and singing “Dixie.”

However, such Southern nationalism can be offensive to black Southerners, many of whom see Confederate symbols as reminders of slavery and racial segregation.

“I think the League of the South would have a hard time making their case to African-Americans in the South,” said Derryn Moten, an Alabama State University assistant professor of humanities who is black.

Hill, who teaches at Alabama’s historically black Stillman College, said his group tries to keep out racists and those who advocate violence. Blacks who share the league’s philosophies are welcome, though few have joined.

In a recent league newsletter, Hill urged members to stay on the attack against “liberal-leftist groups [that] have declared war on our Southern culture and heritage.”

“The day of Southern guilt is over,” he wrote. “The South was right--and let us not forget that salient fact. No apologies for slavery should be made.”

The group, which had to change its name from Southern League when the baseball league of the same name complained, is charting a slow course to building a case for secession.

Members such as Walter Rolandi, a psychologist in Columbia, S.C., are developing links with other separatist groups such as the Northern League of Italy and the Puerto Rico Independence Party.

“We don’t want to sit around with AK-47s and talk about the black helicopters,” Rolandi said. “We’re talking about sovereignty, about the future.”

The league has no timetable for its Southern nation. Lake High Jr., a 57-year-old advertising and public relations consultant who heads the league in South Carolina, figures that if he lives another two decades, he’ll see it happen.

Auburn University historian Wayne Flynt doubts widespread secession sentiment can be whipped up in today’s South, a region of growing economic and political strength.

“I think the league is pretty much out of touch,” Flynt said, adding: “I think most people would rather live in Marietta [Ga.] and vote for Newt Gingrich.”

But Hill, 46, noting the stunningly fast breakup of the Soviet Union last decade, said secession could offer “lifeboats if the nation as a whole hits an iceberg.”

That could include an economic catastrophe or a constitutional crisis, he said. The league’s Web site has been posting updates on the investigation of President Clinton.

“We live in a world that is just full of surprises,” Hill said.