New summit for the South

Democratic politicians and like-minded citizens from across the South gathered in the Carolina Inn on Thursday for the kickoff of a two-day political conference.

About 200 politicians, academics, business leaders, journalists and guests from 11 Southern states converged in Chapel Hill to attend the New Strategies for Southern Progress conference to discuss and outline a new progressive vision for the region.

Hodding Carter III, former editor and publisher of the Delta Democrat Times and president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, moderated the event.

Ranging in tone from serious to light-hearted, he praised the accomplishments Southern progressives have made in civil rights and in other issues and dismissed notions that the Democratic Party is on its death bed.

“The Republican Party was destroyed in 1964,” Carter said, joking about former President Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater.

Former Miss. Gov. William Winter, former U.S. Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas and N.C. Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee were among the speakers during the opening “keynote conversation.”

John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, introduced the panel by outlining the accomplishments of the speakers and calling for a renewed discussion about the role of progressivism in the South.

Men and women of all races have now achieved a level of equality “we would have never dreamed of a generation ago,” Winter said.

He also addressed what he said were the failures of the progressive movement, including the lack of action on civil rights in the 1940s and ’50s.

“We lost a whole generation,” he said. “We are in danger of repeating some of those mistakes.”

Lee, a former state senator and the first black mayor of Chapel Hill, brought up the issue of education and talked about the divisions that still exist in communities, churches and schools. He cited the inequalities between overwhelmingly black public schools and predominantly white charter schools.

But he said he was hopeful about the potential for further progress.

“We have in place the very tools … that we don’t have to continue making the same mistake,” Lee said.

Pryor acknowledged that Democrats have lost ground in recent elections and said the party must develop a clear stance on issues such as same-sex marriage and gun control so these debates don’t distract from more important issues such as education and labor.

“We’ve got to find a different way of saying this,” he said.

The panelists then fielded questions from the audience and spoke more about the relevance of religion. “The root of progressive values in the South comes from the social gospel,” Carter said.

The final question was directed to Pryor by a young Republican in the audience who wanted the former senator to speak more about same-sex marriage.

Pryor said that progress on the issue had been slow, but that acceptance of gays and public dialogue about homosexuality had come a long way since the days former Sen. Jesse Helms once objected to the word “AIDS” being spoken on the Senate floor.

The conference will continue today with panels on public opinion, tax policy, religion and the changing face of the South. It is sponsored by the Center for American Progress, the Center for a Better South and UNC’s Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.