The League of the South is a Southern nationalist organization whose ultimate goal is "a free and independent Southern republic." The group defines the Southern United States as the states that made up the former Confederacy. While political independence ranks highly among the group's goals, it is also a religious and social movement, advocating a return to a more traditional, conservative Christian-oriented Southern culture.
Formed in 1994 by Michael Hill. The League of the South was named in reference to both the Lega Nord, an Italian political party which advocates autonomy for Northern Italy, and the League of United Southerners, a group organized in 1858 to shape Southern public opinion.
Seeking support in the American Declaration of Independence, the League believes the "Southern people" have the right to secede from the United States, and that they "must throw off the yoke of imperial [federal, or central government] oppression". The League promotes a Southern Confederation of sovereign, independent States that "work together... to conduct foreign affairs". It believes that the South's foreign policy should favor neutrality and trade with all states. Furthermore, the League favors strictly limited immigration, opposes standing armies and any regulation whatsoever of firearms. Though the ultimate goal of the League is to create an independent Southern nation, it sees this aim as the final step in an ongoing process:
Once we have planted the seeds of cultural, economic, and social renewal, then (and only then), should we begin to look to the South's political renewal. Political independence will come only when we have convinced the Southern people that they are indeed a nation in the historical, organic, and Biblical sense of the word, namely, that they are a distinct people with language, mores, and folkways that separate them from the rest of the world.
The League's current official activities focus on recruiting and encouraging "cultural secession" and "withholding our support from all institutions and objects of popular culture that are antithetical to our beliefs and heritage." In November 2006 its representatives attended the First North American Secessionist Convention which brought together secessionists from a broad political spectrum. In October 2007 it co-hosted the Second North American Secessionist Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee
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The issue of race has become a source of controversy about, and dispute within, the League of the South. Newspaper columnist Thomas B. Edsall has characterized the League of the South as an “extreme right” organization and a “white nationalist” group. In the Summer of 2000 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) labeled League of the South a "racist hate group" and issued a report filled with allegations of racist statements, especially by the League's President Michael Hill. According to a news article, Hill "welcomed the designation as a 'badge of honor'" and stated SPLC has "a very leftist agenda, these sorts of things are designed to discredit you publicly."
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The League's Board of Directors is composed of Michael Hill, Jack Kershaw, Ray McBerry, Franklin Sanders, Rev. Eugene Cas, Mark Thomey, Mike Tuggle. Among the founding members were Thomas Fleming, Grady McWhiney and Clyde Wilson. Other prominent individuals who have been LoS members include Constitution Party presidential candidate Michael Peroutka (who was endorsed by the League), Michael Andrew Grissom, and Thomas Woods. Some prominent members, such as Woods and McWhiney, appear to have subsequently limited or ended their involvement with the organization.