Category: Essays

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am a sixth generation Texan and proud of it. I am not proud of the current set of Texas’ elected representatives. I believe anyone who does not believe that grits are a gourmet food choice has...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont from the seventh grade through college. I was fully immersed in classic Southern pursuits including hunting just about everything, fishing, trapping muskrats, frog-gigging, arrowhead collecting, and high-speed, dirt-road driving....

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born and raised in Missouri, whose Southern statehood led to the civil war, regardless of whether or not modern Missourians consider themselves Southerners. Missouri and I are the middle children of our respective families: often overlooked...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: This is a story about New York Yankee children listening to their Southern parents’ same old argument about their burial sites in the South. As you say, the South has all answers to all arguments… The Burial “I...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am as Southern as grits, biscuits, and gravy, having the double blessing of being brought into this world in the great state of Georgia (Atlanta to be precise) and having my raising in the Volunteer State of...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in wildly wonderful state of West Virginia and have appreciated being uniquely southern my entire life. From music to food West Virginia is rich with Southern culture. The Books I Never Read 1 I loved...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I was born in Panola County, Mississippi, (where SEC affiliations are handed out as birthrights) to parents from towns named Tocowa and Blackjack. They decided to split the difference and raise me in a town called Pope...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in Arkansas over 15 years, so I’m feeling Southern. The Family Mantra My father bawled one night, wailed just like the pansy he said my brother was when he cried. He didn’t punch holes in the...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Wendy Reed is an Emmy-winning writer and public tv producer, who teaches in the Honors College at the University of Alabama. Her books include Accidental Memoir: How I Killed Someone and Other stories and All Out of...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: “Almost half of my life has been spent in the South. I’ve lived in Boston, Paris, and a few other places as well. I call Austin, TX home now.” Cutie Patootie I fell in love with him the...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’ve lived in Virginia for the past seven, going on eight years. My blood and kin are northern, but my pace is a good bit more southerly. *This was originally published in April 2017 and is republished today,...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: I am from Orangeburg, SC and once fell off the open tailgate of a pickup truck because I was standing up when my uncle took off. We were looking for my cousin Mary Ann’s pet cow, Lady...

Southern Legitimacy Statement: Alrighty, then. Native North Carolinian, former bartender / caterer / chef, middle child of a small-town veterinarian and a home economist extraordinaire. Know the heady joy of running behind the mosquito-spray truck on a sticky summer night, and...

And here’s my Southern Legitimacy Statement:  Luisa was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Roll Tide! On her Mother’s side her family has been in Alabama since before Alabama became a state. Her Mother was actually living in Mexico City when she...