League of the South

History

The organization was formed in 1994 by Michael Hill and others, including attorney Jack Kershaw and Libertarian historian Thomas Woods. The League of the South was named in reference to the League of United Southerners, a group organized in 1858 to shape Southern public opinion and the Lega Nord (Northern League), a successful populist movement in Northern Italy from which the group took inspiration.

The League's first meeting included 40 men, 28 of whom formed The Southern League. Two years later, they changed the name to The League of the South to avoid confusion with the Southern League of Minor League Baseball. Among the early members were Southern professors, including its president Michael Hill, a British history professor and specialist in Celtic history at Stillman College, a historically black school in Tuscaloosa. Hill has since left his teaching position.

In 2000, the group supported Pat Buchanan and the Reform Party.

In time, the group's views became more extreme; by 2004, founding members Grady McWhiney and Forrest McDonald had denounced Hill's leadership and left the organization.

Since 2007, The League's main publication has been The Free Magnolia, a quarterly tabloid.

Views

The League has been described as using "Celtic" mythology "belligerently against what is perceived as a politically correct celebration of multicultural Southern diversity".

The group believes that the Southern United States should be an independent country ruled by white men.

In 2001, they asked the U.S. Congress to pay $5 billion in reparations for "property" (including enslaved human beings) taken or destroyed by Union forces during the Civil War. The group's legal counsel Jack Kershaw said their proposal included paying reparations to African Americans due to the supposed negative effect the end of slavery had on their ancestors: "Blacks were better off in antebellum times in the South than they were anywhere else. [...] They lost a lot too when that lifestyle was destroyed."

Culture

The League defines Southern culture as profoundly Christian and anti-abortion. The League describes Southern Culture as being inherently Anglo-Celtic in nature (originating in the British Isles), and they believe the South's core Anglo-Celtic culture should be preserved.

According to the League, the South has had a Marxist and egalitarian society "impressed upon it". The League's Core Beliefs Statement advocates the stigmatization of "perversity and all that seeks to undermine marriage and the family."

Politics

The League believes that what it calls "the Southern people" have the right to secede from the United States, and that they "must throw off the yoke of imperial [federal, or central government] oppression". The League promotes a Southern Confederation of sovereign, independent States. The League favors strictly limited immigration, opposes standing armies and any regulation whatsoever of firearms. This proposed independent nation is described by League publications as part of a process to convince "the Southern people" that they have a unique identity.

The League focuses on recruiting and encouraging "cultural secession". In November 2006 its representatives attended the First North American Secessionist Convention of secessionists from different parts of the country. In October 2007 it co-hosted the Second North American Secessionist Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Bill Poovey, Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee, Associated Press, reprinted in The Guardian, October 3, 2007; Leonard Doyle, Anger over Iraq and Bush prompts calls for secession from the US , Independent, UK, October 4, 2007; WDEF News 12 Video report on Secessionist Convention , October 3, 2007. The Third North American Secessionist Convention will be held in Manchester, New Hampshire, on November 14–16, 2008.

In 2015, the group announced it would be holding an event celebrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, while honoring John Wilkes Booth as a hero. On April 11, 2015, it was organized by the vice chairman of the Maryland-Virginia chapter of the League, Shane Long. The LOS's main Facebook page put it bluntly: "Join us in April to celebrate the great accomplishment of John Wilkes Booth. He knew a man who needed killing when he saw him!"

The League has attempted to form paramilitary groups on more than one occasion.

The League of the South is opposed to fiat currency, personal income taxation, central banking, property taxes and most state regulation of business. The League supports sales taxes and user fees.

Designation as hate group

In the summer of 2000, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated the League of the South as a hate group, citing the group's "academic veneer" of revisionist history and calls for secession. Hill dismissed the designation as politically motivated.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the League of the South is a white supremacist group which promotes racism and anti-Semitism through events held with other white supremacist groups. The League of the South joined the Nationalist Front, a loose coalition of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, in 2017.

Members

The League's board of directors is composed of Michael Hill, Mark Thomey, Mike Crane, Sam Nelson, and John Cook. Among the founding members were Thomas Fleming, Thomas Woods, Grady McWhiney, Clyde Wilson, and Forrest McDonald.

References

References

1. (June 29, 2018). "Meet the League 2018".
2. (April 2020). "Michael Ralph Tubbs". Southern Poverty Law Center/Hatewatch.
3. (February 9, 2017). "'May I Be Of Service?' Michael Cushman's Letter to National Alliance Founder William Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center.
4. Applebome, Peter. (March 7, 1998). "Could the Old South Be Resurrected?; Cherished Ideas of the Confederacy (Not Slavery) Find New Backers". The New York Times.
5. "Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Last of the Confederates".
6. "Decline of the neo-Confederates".
7. Pavia, Will. (December 4, 2010). "They call us rednecks and crackers but we can govern ourselves". [[The Times]].
8. Atkins, Steven E.. (2011). "Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History". ABC-CLIO.
9. Taylor, Helen. (2002). "South to a New Place: Region, Literature, Culture". Louisiana State University Press.
10. "League of the South (LoS)".
11. Weill, Kelly. (March 27, 2018). "Neo-Confederate League of the South Banned From Armed Protesting in Charlottesville". The Daily Beast.
12. (June 8, 2017). "League of the South website".
13. [http://www.utpjournals.com/product/cras/323/sebesta.html "The US Civil War as a Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South"] {{webarchive. link. (October 30, 2005)
14. "League of the South Core Beliefs Statement".
15. "From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate".
16. "Meet the League: State Chairmen and Organizers of the League of the South". Southern Poverty Law Center.
17. "League of the South page at SPLC".
18. link. (January 21, 2012 Jack Kershaw Obituary)
19. (2014-07-30). "Review Essay of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.". Mises Institute.
20. "League of the South FAQ".
21. "League of the South".
22. Edsall, Thomas B.. (July 23, 2000). "Buchanan's Bid Transforms the Reform Party; Candidate's Stands Draw Extreme Right Support". The Washington Post.
23. (2002). "South to a new place: region, literature, culture". LSU Pres`.
24. Walkowitz, Daniel J.. (2005). "Memory and the impact of political transformation in public space". Duke University Press.
25. Atkins, Stephen E.. (2002). "Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremist Groups". Greenwood Press.
26. (January 27, 2018). "White nationalist group linked to violent street brawls descends on Florida". Newsweek.
27. Ahmed, Saeed. (April 13, 2001). "Group seeks reparations for Civil War 'atrocities'". The Atlanta Constitution.
28. [http://www.leagueofthesouth.net/static/homepage/intro_articles/ls-grand-strategy.html ''The Grand Strategy''] {{webarchive. link. (September 26, 2007)
29. Gary Shapiro, "Modern-Day Secessionists Will Hold a Conference on Leaving the Union," ''The New York Sun,'' September 27, 2006, 6; Paul Nussbaum, "Coming together to ponder pulling apart, Latter-day secessionists of all stripes convene in Vermont, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', November 6, 2006.
30. Throckmorton, Warren. "League of the South Plans April Celebration of Lincoln's Assassination".
31. "League of the South Announces Formation of 'Southern Defense Force'".
32. DeSantis, John. (September 7, 2000). "League of the South branded a hate group". [[The Sun Herald]].
33. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101215172729/http://dixienet.org/rights/boardmembers.shtml The League's website]
34. Young, Cathy. (February 21, 2005). "Last of the Confederates".
35. Young, Cathy. (June 1, 2005). "Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer".