White Southerners

White Southerners, are White Americans from the Southern United States, primarily originating from the various waves of Northwestern and Southern European immigration to the region beginning in the 16th century to the British Southern colonies, French Louisiana, and the Spanish-American colonies; primarily Florida, Texas, Louisiana. A semi-uniform white Southern identity coalesced during the Reconstruction era partially to enforce white supremacism in the region.^[2]

Various waves of later European immigration from Northwestern Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe shaped the white population in some areas of the South.

Many free blacks in the South assimilated into the white population.^[3][4][5][6] It is estimated some 10% of white Southerners have detectable African ancestry.^[7]

Academic John Shelton Reed argues that "Southerners' differences from the American mainstream have been similar in kind, if not degree, to those of the immigrant ethnic groups".^[8][9] Reed states that Southerners, as other ethnic groups, are marked by differences from the national norm, noting that they tend to be poorer, less educated, more rural, and specialize in job occupation. He argues that they tended to differ in cultural and political terms, and that their accents serve as an ethnic marker.^[10]

Upon white Southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton being elected to the U.S. presidency during the late 20th century, it symbolized generations of change from an Old South to New South society. Journalist Hodding Carter and State Department spokesperson during the Carter Administration stated: "The thing about the South is that it's finally multiple rather than singular in almost every respect." The transition from President Carter to President Clinton also mirrored the social and economic evolution of the South in the mid-to-late 20th century.^[11]