The best evidence that the Southern tradition is, and always has been, the only unifying force in America

The best evidence that the Southern tradition is, and always has been, the only unifying force in America. https://t.co/CWcrc6GQ6t

— Brion McClanahan (@BrionMcClanahan) August 17, 2023

Find the lyrics to the song here.

1920s, The Southern Renaissance occurred in the 1920s and was the reinvigoration of American Southern literature in the 1920s and 1930s with the appearance of writers such as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Caroline Gordon, Margaret Mitchell, Katherine Anne Porter, Erskine Caldwell, Allen Tate, Tennessee Williams, Robert Penn Warren, and Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

This is a good list of movies that involve Confederates or at least address the southern tradition.

1959-1961, The Rebel (TV series, 1959—1961.  Ex-Confederate roams the West doing good deeds.

1970s, The 1970s saw the Southern Cultural revival flourish.  Think of the Burt Reynolds movies as Gator McClusky.  Movies like this were categorized as Hicksploitation films.  

1972, Deliverance. 

1973, White Lightning was released in 1973.  

1974, Bootleggers, co-starring Jaclyn Smith and Slim Pickens.

1974, Macon County Line, starring and directed by Max Baer, Jr. was pretty chilling.  

1975, Hard Times, starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, and James Coburn.

1976,  Gator was released in 1976.  

1976, J.D.'s Revenge, co-starring Louis Gossett, Jr.

1976, Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976.  The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from author Asa Earl "Forrest" Carter's 1972 novel, The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales.  

1976, Ode to Billy Joe McAllister, starring Robby Benson, is based on the 1967 song "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry. Max Baer, Jr., aka, Jethro from the Beverly Hill Billies, directed that movie.

1977, Greased Lightning, not a bad cast at all: Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, Pam Grier, and Cleavon Little.  

1977, Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds, Sally Field.  

1979, Norma Rae, Sally Field, Beau Bridges, et al. 

To get a better understanding of Southern history and cultural traditions, I would start by taking Parts III and IV of the McClanahan Academy "Southern Cultural and Intellectual History, Parts III & IV."