The Thoughtful Dresser: North Carolina in two decades

Friday 7 November 2008

North Carolina in two decades

Lunch counter sit-in North Carolina 1960

Presidential election, 2008

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Linda - THE major difference between the North Carolina of 1960 and in 2008 is this: There has been a huge influx of people from the North who have gone there to either look for jobs or have been transferred there by companies they work for in the North who also have operations there, such as IBM and Corning, Inc. Those people brought all sorts of baggage with them: Cultural beliefs, food preferences, etc. They worked in companies where racism was not accepted and many of them continued to work for companies in NC where the companies, by law, were operating the same way. So, what happened in NC and VA did not surprise me a whole lot. By the same token, what happened in SC, AL, and MS did not surprise me either because very few people from the north go there to work because of the culture, the poor educational systems, and so on. So, what you saw there was that the more northern-like and northern-facing two Southern states voted more Democratic than their southern neighbors.; 7 November 2008 at 20:28
NancyDaQ said...: There is definitely a New South/Old South split that goes even farther back than the 1960s. New South consists of those urban areas that developed post civil war (Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, Charlotte), whereas Old South are the areas that were preeminant before and lost that with the War (literal backwaters).

You see it playing out even today. The reason why people from outside of the region went to those areas is because they were more business friendly--the outsiders brought money and jobs. The newcomers are also more open in turn, and so the cycle continues.

I saw this when I lived in Alabama in the 80's. Mobile (old South) was buried in traditions, while Birmingham (new South) was much more progressive and had more opportunities for everybody.

Actually, it seems that the biggest racial/cultural change in the South today is the influx of Hispanics, which both black and white cultures are still adapting to.; 7 November 2008 at 21:59
Belle de Ville said...: 1960-2008 Aren't we looking at almost five decades not two?; 8 November 2008 at 20:23
Linda Grant said...: Two different decades; 8 November 2008 at 20:48