Southern Art and Architecture

"To no small percentage of ... urban sophisticates, a Southern art collection is a velvet Elvis, a NASCAR poster and a concrete yard gnome," writes Hal Crowther in the current issue of the Oxford American.

The view of the South as some kind of cultural wasteland -- "the Sahara of the Bozart" in H.L. Mencken's famous jab -- is forcefully refuted in the Oxford American's special Southern Art and Architecture issue. The articles and galleries presented in the magazine illustrate the depth and range of artistic creativity present across the South.

From an interview with the recently deceased Arkansas architect E. Fay Jones to a profile of the Alabama "outsider" artist Thornton Dial to a critique of the work of Kentucky photographer Shelby Lee Adams, the magazine shows how a distinctively Southern sense of place can inspire an artist to create works that transcend the boundaries of place and speak to all people.

That kind of transcendent vision is especially needed in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Several articles in the Oxford American's special issue describe the importance of art and architecture in the recovery process, particularly in New Orleans.

Even if a bit belated, Oxford American's art and architecture issue makes an inspiring Christmas gift for anyone who finds art inspiring and believes that Southern art matters, not just to the region, but the nation as a whole.

Southern reading: Richness and illiteracy

A holiday-weekend series by the Associated Press highlights a paradox of the South: it has one of the country's richest literary traditions and best writers, but some of the highest illiteracy.

This clash of literature and illiteracy is one of the great contradictions in a region filled with them. And it's particularly stark in Mississippi, where studies have found 30 percent of adults can't read well enough to fill out a job application, the dropout rate is 40 percent and public schools rank near the bottom in nearly every category.

According to a sidebar story on illiteracy, the South has the highest rate based on a 1992 survey (the latest info available). Top states include:

--Mississippi: 30 %.
--Louisiana: 28 %.
--Alabama: 25 %.
--Florida: 25 %.
--South Carolina: 25 %.
--California: 24 %.
--New York: 24 %.
--Texas: 24 %.
--Georgia: 23 %.
--Arkansas: 22 %.
--North Carolina: 22 %.
--New Jersey: 21 %.
--Tennessee: 21 %.
--Illinois: 20 %.
--Maryland: 20 %.
--New Mexico: 20 %.
--West Virginia: 20 %.
--Kentucky: 19 %.
--Pennsylvania: 19 %.
--Rhode Island: 19 %.
--Virginia: 19 %.

Robbing Peter ...

Those in Mississippi and Louisiana: Please forgive us.

Those in other Southern states: Please indulge us.

But this editorial from The Leader explains why Arkansas electricity consumers feel like they are getting a raw deal -- again.

From a regional perspective, it is worth noting that electricity generation remains a significant concern 70 years after TVA.

Monday, for the second time in 20 years, the regulators at FERC said Arkansas electrical customers of Entergy Corp. should subsidize those in other states. Starting in 2007, customers of Entergy Arkansas will send some $200 million a year to the Entergy subsidiary in Louisiana so that it can lower the light bills of its customers. It has nothing to do with Katrina. Louisiana filed this case years ago.

Arkansas ratepayers already have paid some $3 billion to Louisiana and Mississippi over the past 20 years so that electrical bills in those states will not be so high.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held that the expense of generating electricity in the states served by the big Entergy holding company should be more or less equalized.

Since Arkansas generates nearly all of its electricity at nuclear and coal-fired plants, which now produce power much less expensively than do gas-burning plants, we are supposed to help Louisiana. Louisiana generates some electricity from nuclear units, but most of its electricity comes from natural gas, the cost of which has risen sharply since 2000.

There is no earthly justification for requiring energy customers in one state to subsidize those in a slightly richer state except for a private agreement among the operating businesses of a holding company. Equalization has not always been a federal policy. It was not when Arkansans were paying much higher costs than neighboring states.

A right-wing economic coalition

The Christian Coalition of Alabama (CCA) is no friend of progressive government in Alabama. The group focuses much of its advocacy against fundamentally fixing Alabama's horribly regressive tax code. (A telling example of the code: State income taxes kick in for wage-earners making as little as $4,000 annually.)

Recently, John Giles, head of the CCA, said he agreed with raising the minimum income. He quickly added that he opposes adjusting upper brackets -- a tactic that would quite likely reduce revenue for a state almost always short of funds.

As Alabama Arise points out: The bottom fifth of Alabamians, income-wise, pay 10.6% of their income in taxes. The top 1% pay 3.8% of their income in taxes.

The camel might still have to go through the eye of a needle, but a rich man under Alabama's tax code doesn't have it quite so difficult. Fortunately, a growing movement in Alabama is trying to correct reform the code.

Oddly enough, Giles' response to an Anniston Star editorial on the topic hardly touches on religious values -- a surprise given the name of his coalition.

Warner Delivers Parting Shot to GOP on Gay Rights

Virginia’s out-going governor – and emerging 2008 Democratic presidential candidate - Mark Warner has once again stirred up trouble for Virginia Republicans. With his record-high approval ratings and the Commonwealth’s GOP still smarting from the November victory of Warner’s heir-apparent, Gov-elect Tim Kaine, the Governor inserted a gay rights provision into his final budget barring discrimination by state agencies in hiring and promotion on the basis of sexual orientation. This action set off another round of heartburn for Republicans, who control both houses of the General Assembly. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

“Warner's tactics on this hot-button issue are unconventional. Rather than seek a separate law that could be easily bottled up, he is including the safeguards in an omnibus spending measure -- larded with programs prized by legislators that supersedes other state laws.”

With the Gov-elect Kaine confirming his intention to sign executive orders codifying these protections, reaction from Republican leaders have been mixed. Warner and Kaine are appealing to economic development interests as part of their justification for such laws, and the state’s leading gay rights group, Equality Virginia notes that the GOP House Speaker is among the majority of state legislators who have previously supported such measures.

“The administration, anticipating a possible fight over the proposed protections, privately informed Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, about the provision before Warner rolled out the budget Friday. One knowledgeable source said that Howell told the governor he would not lead a pitched battle against the ban. Howell is among 84 Republican and Democratic legislators who signed a pledge with Equality Virginia, a gay-rights lobbying organization that pressed Warner for the ban, to prohibit discrimination in their offices. According to Equality Virginia, 14 of 19 Fortune 500 companies in Virginia have workplace protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. At least eight of the state's largest private employers have sexual-orientation protections in their nondiscrimination policies.

If the provision holds, it could signal a shift in the politics of gay rights in Virginia, a cradle of Christian conservatism and home to giants of the Right, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

2.5 Million Southerners Would Benefit From An Increase In The Minimum Wage

2.5 million Southern workers would benefit directly from an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.

Texas is home to the largest number of potential beneficiaries (658,000) in both the nation and the South. When potential beneficiaries are measured as a percentage of a state's workforce, the Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana would rank among the nation's biggest winners. Roughly 10 percent of Alabama's workforce would enjoy higher pay as the result of an increase in the minimum wages, as would 9.5 percent of Mississippi's workforce and 9.1 percent of Louisiana's workers.

These findings come from a new study by Heather Boushey and John Schmitt, economists at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. An impact analysis of a minimum wage increase, the study describes the demographic characteristics of minimum wage workers and shows how an increase could enrich their personal finances.

Three key findings emerge from the report:

1. Without federal action, the purchasing power of the federal minimum wage, adjusting for inflation, soon will fall to its lowest level since 1955. Even an increase to $7.25 would return the minimum wage only to where it was in the mid-1980s.
2. Minimum wage workers contribute a large portion of their family's income. Half of all minimum-wage workers are prime-age workers (ages 25-54). In families with a minimum-wage worker, that worker contributed 68 percent of the family's 2002 income.
3. The extra $1,500 that a full-time minimum-wage worker would earn as a result of a wage increase is the equivalent of 8.8 months of groceries or 10.5 months of heating an utility bills, based on typical consumer expenditures for low-income families.

A Southern statewide smoking ban?

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who once opposed past efforts to ban smoking in restaurants, yesterday announced that he might move to prohibit smoking in all workplaces statewide.

Only seven states have banned smoking in the workplace. None are Southern, which is not surprising in light of a culture that resists government interference in such matters.

However, according to an article in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Huckabee's new position indicates that public health considerations are becoming more prominent in the region.

“Maybe to some people’s surprise, I would support a statewide workplace smoking ban, which to me is doing it in the right place for the right reasons,” Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It presents for [workers] a health risk we should eliminate, in the same way we would eliminate other health risks like lead paint or asbestos.”

Huckabee’s endorsement of smoking restrictions follows recent news that the state’s adult smoking rate increased slightly in 2004 to 25. 7 percent.

The uptick occurred despite the state’s nearly $43 million investment in smoking cessation and prevention programs and the governor’s own Healthy Arkansas campaign, which aims to reduce adult smoking to 12 percent by January 2007.

Redistricting, Disenfranchisement and Other Dirty Tricks

Today's Washington Post has the story on the Supreme Court's decision to review Texas's ridiculous redistricting, and they, perhaps understandably, focus on the fact that the review could be one more blow to Tom Delay.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the article comes slightly farther in, when we catch a glimpse of life and politics inside the current Department of Justice:

Justice Department lawyers initially recommended rejecting Texas's plan, saying it would harm black and Hispanic voters, but were overruled by senior Justice officials.

That sentence is where you find the meat of this story. As an isolated incident, political appointees choosing their party's success over the law and the people is shameful, but sadly not surprising.

Travel east to Georgia, though, and the pattern becomes clear. This year, the Georgia Legislature passed a modern poll tax of sorts, required state-issued photo identification for voters. This would require the poor and homeless without driver's licenses to pay for ID, assuming they could get time off from work to go get it. Of course, the loss of those voters disproportionately affects one party. Once again, career lawyers in the Justice Department who said the move was unconstitutional were overruled by senior political appointees.

Southern progressives have to be on the front lines of these fights, for numerous reasons. First and foremost, we should opposed to disenfranchisement of anyone for any reason. More than that, however, the logic behind these moves is self-fulfilling. By disenfranchising voters who oppose them, the current administration cements their hold and their ability to further manipulate the system. It creates an uphill battle for progressives for years to come, and it is a battle we can ill-afford.

Motherhood, Apple Pie & Democrats?

Today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch profiles attempts by three highly-touted 2008 presidential candidates – Mark Warner, John Edwards, & Tom Vilsack – to appeal to broad American audiences ahead of the election. Speaking at a Florida Democratic even over the weekend, each man - two Southerners and one Midwesterner – offered up their take on a new notion of “national community” to inspire Americans to seek common ground with one another.

"There is a hunger in America, a hunger for a sense of national community, a hunger for something big and important and inspirational that they all can be involved in," said Edwards, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee. "Americans don't want to believe that they are out there on an island all alone," the former North Carolina senator said.

Each held up his own life as an example of the greatness that can be achieved in America, and waxed about restoring the sense of hope to the American electorate. It appears that their tact is to imbue their candidacies with a new sense of optimism that plays against the conventional Democratic model, thus staking out ground against presumptive front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see if, and how, this message will resonate with voters, especially those who lean Republican. If they can reach beyond the Democratic base, then the men just may turn the "national community" blue in 2008.

How to Grow Bluegrass

If you are lucky, when you visit the Center for a Better South’s Web site you see the photo of the ubiquitous white fences and rolling bluegrass that, while just a small part of the state, is the heart of Kentucky. Unfortunately, those scenes are in jeopardy. In fact, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has named the Bluegrass Cultural Landscape of Central Kentucky to its 2006 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World.

And, while Lexington has been on the forefront of the urban growth and rural preservation since the 1950s, the debate over how much and where to grow continues. As the Planning Commission and the Urban County Council reviews the 2001 Comprehensive Plan, the expansion of the Urban Service Area is again a hot topic in the bluegrass -- pitting property owners and developers against conservationists.

In support of expansion…an argument for “moderate expansion of the Urban Service Area.”

And against expansion… an argument for infill and redevelopment.

Obviously, questions of growth are affecting cities across the South (see the entry "Smart Growth Spreads to Virginia's Southern Suburbs"). Although Lexington faces some unique challenges, it provides an interesting case study for how to grow responsibly. Hopefully, it will continue to do so.

To learn more about the efforts to preserve the bluegrass area, visit the Bluegrass Conservancy -- a nonprofit regional land trust.

Failing Jobs, Falling Wages in NC

Half of all North Carolina's families with minor children earn too little to meet their basic needs, according to a new report from the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center.

The study, a biennial project of the Budget & Tax Center, calculates a basic budget or living income standard (LIS) for two common family types -- a parent with one child and two parents with two children -- found in each of North Carolina's 100 counties. By using actual cost data for food, housing, health care, child care, transportation, taxes and miscellaneous expenses, the LIS offers a more precise measure of financial hardship than provided by the federal poverty level.

The LIS report found that, on average, a family with children would need to earn 231 percent of the federal poverty level to meet its basic needs. This translates into an hourly wage of $12.32 -- an amount 2.4 times greater than the current minimum wage of $5.15.

The study also found that hard work alone is not a ticket to financial security. Roughly 46 percent of families with a child and at least one working adult fell below the LIS. In terms of individual demographic groups, majorities of North Carolina's children, African Americans and Hispanics, along with almost half of its women, lived in families with incomes below the LIS.

According to the report's authors, this development is not simply the result of the last economic downturn. Rather, it is the result of a decades-long decline in real wages, a shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based one, and a shifting of tax burdens from the affluent to those least able to pay.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Proponents of a minimum wage increase are discovering that they cannot depend on state legislators to confront the powerful business lobby, even if a majority of citizens favor raising the minimum wage.

With that in mind, a coalition is being formed in Arkansas to go directly to voters with a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage.

On Monday the coalition, called "Give Arkansas a Rai$e Now," will announce its formation and submit to the attorney general's office a proposed ballot title for the Nov. 7, 2006 election. If the title is approved, the coalition will gather the required number of signatures to put the issue before the voters, thereby circumventing a legislature rendered unresponsive by a lobbyist-dominated culture.

Southern states push for early primaries

The Washington Post today reports that Southern states figure in a Democratic Party plan to add several presidential primaries and caucuses to the early rounds traditionally dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire.

The commission faces a weekend deadline to approve a plan that responds to party criticisms that Iowa and New Hampshire have enjoyed their privileged positions for too long and that more demographic, geographic and economic diversity is needed to make the nominating process more representative.

These considerations make sense as recent census figures indicate that Southern states continue to gain population relative to the rest of the nation.

1,000th Execution--in the South, naturally

The first stories about the death penalty this week were about the commutation of a death sentence in Virginia by Gov. Mark Warner (read about the clemency here).

Then all eyes in the worldwide human rights community swung a little further south, to North Carolina, where Kenneth Boyd was executed by lethal injection early this morning (read about his execution here).

What's the big deal about N.C.'s third execution in less than a month? Numbers. Boyd was the 1,000th person executed in the USA since capital punishment was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.

Research consistently shows that the administration of capital punishment has serious problems with race (read more here), economics (read more here), poor defense attorneys (read more here), and even prosecutorial misconduct (read more here).

Texas, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina are among the nation's leaders in executing their residents. Maybe the grisly landmark represented by Boyd's execution, in focusing so much shame on the South, will generate some energy here for the abolition movement. It's already providing fodder for numerous newspaper columns nationwide such as this one.

Smart Growth Spreads in Virginia's Southern Suburbs

Amidst a regional real estate boom that has driven up the price of new housing, more and more citizens in the once-sleepy suburbs of Richmond are organizing to address the sprawling developments that are popping up. Under the auspices of “smart growth,” “responsible growth,” or “growth management,” homeowners, businesspeople, and other residents have formed various entities aimed at garnering some level of control over the rapid pace of homebuilding in their communities.

Groups have formed in Richmond’s major suburban counties, a regional umbrella organization exists, and the Urban Land Institute – a leading voice for development in the US – has set up a smart growth shop in Virginia’s capital region. The Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting on the formation of a new group in Powhatan, a once rural locale that is seeing a steady increase in people and large lot housing. For now, the proponents of “smart growth” are working to define their conception of the term:

“Powhatan County residents upset by rapid growth are preparing to push for ‘smart growth.’ One of their first tasks will be figuring out what that is… [the definition] ‘hasn't been formulated yet, but it will be.’”

At any rate, the effort is designed to empower the citizens to take action in the best interests of their community. One participant notes: “If people are going to complain about the way the county is changing, then they need to get involved -- either that or quit complaining.”

Regardless of the outcome, it looks as if smart growth is here to stay in Metro Richmond. If groups like this can effectively shape local development and growth policy through citizen activism in a heavy Dillon Rule state like Virginia, it could be a lesson for progressive interests throughout the South who wish to reach deeper into these typically conservative outposts.

What's Way Down South? Excellent Universities!

"Being in the South Holds Back Southern Universities." That could have been the headline of a November 30th article in The New York Times instead entitled "In Desire to Grow, Colleges In South Battle With Roots."

In an attempt to manufacture news out of a rehashing of Southern stereotypes, the Times article uses an ill-defined controversy over the growth plans of the University of the South (Sewanee) to imply that an obsession with the Civil War prevents Southern universities from attracting high-quality students and competing nationally.

Iif anything is stuck in the Civil War, however, it is the view of the South presented in the Times article. While it is true that Southern universities historically lagged behind Northern ones ,that is no longer the case. Since the Second World War, many Southern universities have flourished and have reached the upper levels of American higher education.

Today, the South is home to a wide variety of competitive universities, ranging from "Public Ivies" like North Carolina and Virginia to selective private schools like Vanderbilt and Wake Forest to extraordinary liberal arts colleges like Davidson and Washington & Lee. Such institutions - not to mention other top-notch schools like William & Mary, Texas, Spelman and Morehouse - attract talent from all over the world to the South, graduate future leaders and churn out vital research.

This is not to say that Southern campuses are immune from the need to confront the past, especially slavery. Yet that painful challenge should not blind observers to the remarkable strides that Southern universities have made in recent decades. Rather than being mired in the past, Southern universities now stand on the edge of the future.