I found myself wondering if maybe I had entered the "New South."

After a moment's reflection, I dismissed the idea.  Nah--this was probably just the new part of town.  The part near the interstate.

With another sip of my coffee, I realized this proposition needed to be considered further.  So what was wrong with the idea of the New South being in the new part of town?  Would it be more reasonable to expect to find it in the old part of town?  Could I insist that they rebuild the whole town in order for there to be such a thing as a New South here?  My reluctance to accept the possibility that I might be in the New South appeared unwarranted.

And yet...

I drummed my fingers on the Formica countertop.  The part about this being the part of town near the interstate had the feel of something significant.  Was there some sort of connection waiting to be discovered here?

I sat up with a start.  Connection:  maybe that was it!  Maybe what was new about the New South had to do with being linked.

I recalled from my student days at a mid-Atlantic college that for many of my friends from the Deep South--Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi--the  drive home on vacations and holidays had been a long and difficult business.  Most of the roads were only two lanes;   and not even two full lanes at that, but more like a lane and a half.  The difficulty of vehicular access had been a major factor in keeping the South isolated from the rest of the country.

The things that developed in isolation weren't always desirable.

While it was isolated, the South was economically stagnant.  Economic stagnation had perpetuated social stagnation--including an archaic racial system that allowed impoverished white people to feel like they were "somebody" by having even more impoverished black people below them in the social order.

But now, with the interstate highway system built, the South was no longer isolated.   Industries had a viable way to relocate here, which allowed them to take advantage of the lower taxes, labor costs, and crime rates.

With this new accessibility bringing economic vitality to the area, there was less of a need for the old I'm-up-because-you're-down racial structure.

Something was finally adding up.

Up to this point, the accounts I had read about the emergence of the New South hadn't made much real sense to me.  According to the standard explanations in the news media, the Civil Rights movement had somehow created prosperity out of social justice.   This was a beautiful thought, certainly, but where was the hard logic behind it?   Or the sense of causality?  Societies that are just are not necessarily prosperous.  And while the legal changes brought about by the Civil Rights movement may have reduced the stigma of the South among progressive companies, reducing a stigma is still a far cry from providing a convincing positive reason to consider a region for corporate economic expansion.

Things looked very different when I considered them in a new sequence.  It was fairly apparent how the economic revitalization of the South could enable a corresponding modernization of its social structures.  Where the courageous struggles of the Civil Rights movement had succeeded in changing the laws, the prosperity of a newly connected economy had probably succeeded in changing a good number of ordinary white people’s attitudes.

And what had enabled this economic revitalization?  Much credit seemed due to a relatively unglamorous public works project.