The League of the South is a nationalist, secessionist, movement in the Southern United States.

The League began in the 1980s as the Southern League, an organization designed to promote Southern rights politically, much in the manner of the Lombard League or Northern League of Italy. The name was changed when it was pointed out that it was identical to one of the leagues of minor league baseball.

The League promotes Southern heritage through political and intellectual means. It sees the South as a superior and separate culture from the rest of Americana and appeals to the South's heritage of conservative Christianity. Its membership of educators, academics, and other partisans espouse its viewpoints, and attempt to rescue the concept of Southern heritage and the Confederate legacy from thugs, rednecks, and white trash who seem to have appropriated its symbols but have little or no feeling for their real original significance. The group is critical of Abraham Lincoln federalism, Affirmative Action, the new imperialism of the modern Federal Government of the United States, and left-liberals, and it strongly supports states rights and individual rights such as the Second Amendment.

Charges of historical revisionism stem from statements by League members that provide justification for slavery as having been beneficial for the enslaved as well as the slaveowners. While not expressing a desire to return to slavery, most League members feel that the brutality of Southern slavery has been exaggerated and its many benefits minimized; in short that Gone with the Wind is closer to the facts of history than Uncle Tom's Cabin was (see Stockholm Syndrome).

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a controversial anti-hate group, has added the League of the South to its list of watched groups. League members refute charges racism by noting that the organization has black members such as activist H.K. Edgerton .

Interest in the League has been spurred somewhat by the publication within the last decade of books such as The South Was Right, Jefferson Davis Was Right, Defending My Heritage, and other thematically-related works. The League has demonstrated a considerable talent for self-promotion, and gets considerable news coverage in several Southern markets. It does not make its membership figures available to outsiders; however it is estimated that the organization has about 9,000 members as of 2005, with 89 local groups in 17 states.

See also

• Neo-confederate

External links

• Official website
• SPLC Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2003: Neo-Confederate