The Improbable Era: The South since World War II

X. Change & Tradition in Southern Society

X. Change Sc Tradition in Southern Society Southern society after World War II underwent the most severe stress of its entire history. Despite the trials of the Civil War and the upheavals of Reconstruction, neither of these experiences had threatened the core of the traditional southern society with the force of the recent political, economic, and social changes. Yet countless landmarks of sectional distinctiveness remained. The changes themselves took place in a manner peculiar to the South. Moreover, the primary institutions and modes of conduct survived, even where drastically modified. Every study of southern behavior and attitudes in the 1960s and 1970s indicated the persistence of the old in the midst of the new.1 Southern class structure endured the effects of industrialization, urbanization, and prosperity. Descendants of the antebellum planters still formed a small but select gentry even if overshadowed by others with more money or more political influence. The planter offspring usually lived on income from inherited property or by such professions as law, medicine, or the military. But tradition was the mainstay of their survival as a class. Southerners continued to draw a sharper distinction than nonsoutherners between the expressions "good family" and "good people." This was especially true in such enclaves of old southern values as Charleston, where, according to one observer, the very names of individuals tended to become genealogical incantations: for example, Pinckney Ravenel Rutledge or Ravenel Rutledge Pinckney. Though less pronounced in less historic places, the principle of guarding family name and prestige was strong everywhere. A scholar reared in New Orleans described this trait: "Even most Boston Brahmins Change and Tradition i6g can hardly imagine the intense awareness of the past long dead and the preoccupation with matters of family, ancestry, and local history particularly among older women of the Southern patriciate/72 The aristocratic tradition was not altogether the product of selfadmiration . Most white southerners of all classes, and at least some black southerners, still venerated the region's plantation past and conferred a certain respect upon its heirs. At their worst, these aristocrats by popular consent represented a pretentiousness that failed to conceal their lack of wealth or power. At their best, they continued to represent a welcome exception to the mass, with emphasis upon personal honor and integrity, valor, graciousness of manners, and the perfection of "good living/7 as opposed to the mere accumulation of money or the cultivation of utilitarian competence.3 They believed, said a sympathetic but critical analyst, "that who you are, if not superior to what you are, transcends at least the standard of what you have/74 Eclipsing the old plantation elite in everything but tradition and family pride were the wealthy businessmen, who had begun to arise before World War II and whose numbers were multiplied by the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s. The New South ideal of progress through commerce and industry now came into its own and spread from the metropolises to the smaller cities and eventually into the towns and villages. At the top of the economic and social pyramid were the millionaire and multimillionaire entrepreneurs in mineral recovery, manufacturing, marketing, and life insurance. Oil was the source of the most sensational wealth, especially among the swashbuckling prospectors of Texas. Such men as H. L. Hunt, Sid W. Richardson, and Clinton W. Murchison stood at the head of a list of Texas "Big Rich" who would have been at ease among the Rockefellers , Vanderbilts, and Carnegies of an earlier age. Spreading down from the multimillionaires was a substructure of lesser business figures—self-made, rugged proprietors of small, independent enterprises in furniture, clothing, refining, and food processing. Serving the needs of these manufacturers and marketers was a multitude of contractors, truckers, machinery and appliance agents, employees of service firms, and wholesalers and retailers. The blending of the regional economy into the national economy greatly increased the number of native southerners and newcomers lyo Change and Tradition associated with national corporations. These employees of General Motors, Standard Oil, Du Pont, Lockheed, and the like were scattered throughout the society at all levels. Corporate executives and regional managers lived in the most exclusive neighborhoods and moved in social circles with the entrepreneurs and most distinguished professional men. The corporation engineers, geologists, and lowerechelon administrators made up a significant part of the southern "white-collar" class. They together with the rank and file of the lawyers , physicians, accountants, small...