Southeastern United States

Southeastern United States
The American Southeast in dark Gray. The American Southeast in dark Gray.
Population  (2009)
• Total	78,320,977
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST/CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4

The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populated regions in the United States of America.

By definition per the Census Bureau, there isn't an official set of states that make up the Southeastern United States. However, most publications and the general population of the Southern United States generally agree that the region is comprised of the following states: Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, The Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia.

With over 18 million people, Florida is the largest of the states. It is followed by Georgia, with approximately 10 million residents, and then North Carolina with over 9 million people.

Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Memphis are the largest cities in the region, while Metropolitan Atlanta, South Florida, and Northern Virginia are by far the most populous metropolitan areas.

Culture

Main article: Culture of the Southern United States

The predominant culture of the South has its origins with the settlement of the region by British colonists in the 17th century, large groups of Scots and Ulster-Scots (later called the Scotch-Irish) who settled in Appalachia and the Piedmont in the 18th century, and the many African slaves who were part of the Southern economy. African-American descendants of the slaves brought into the South comprise the United States' second-largest racial minority, accounting for 12.1 percent of the total population according to the 2000 census. Despite Jim Crow era outflow to the North (see Great Migration (African American)) the majority of the black population remains concentrated in the southern states, and have heavily contributed to the cultural blend (the charismatic brand of Christianity, foods, art, music [see "Spiritual (music)", blues, jazz and rock and roll]) that characterize Southern culture today.

Race relations

Main article: Racism in the United States

Native Americans

Native Americans, had lived in the south for nearly 12,000 years. They were defeated by settlers in a series of wars ending in the War of 1812 and the Seminole War, and most were removed west to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

Civil rights

In response to this treatment, the South witnessed two major events in the lives of 20th century African Americans: the Great Migration and the American Civil Rights Movement.

The Great Migration began during World War I, hitting its high point during World War II. During this migration, blacks left the racism and lack of opportunities in the South and settled in northern cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, where they found work in factories and other sectors of the economy. (Katzman, 1996) However, Chicago quickly became the most segregated city in the north. This migration produced a new sense of independence in the Black community and contributed to the vibrant black urban culture seen during the Harlem Renaissance.

The migration also empowered the growing Civil Rights Movement. While the movement existed in all parts of the United States, its focus was against disfranchisement and the Jim Crow laws in the South. Most of the major events in the movement occurred in the South, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, the March on Selma, Alabama, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. In addition, some of the most important writings to come out of the movement were written in the South, such as King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Most of the civil rights landmarks can be found around the South. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site in Atlanta includes a museum that chronicles the American Civil Rights Movement as well as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s boyhood home on Auburn Avenue. Additionally, Ebenezer Baptist Church is located in the Sweet Auburn district as is the King Center, location of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King's gravesites.

As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow laws across the South were dropped. A second migration appears to be underway, with African Americans from the North moving to the South in record numbers. While race relations are still a contentious issue in the South, the region surpasses the rest of the country in many areas of integration and racial equality. According to 2003 report by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Virginia Beach, Charlotte, Nashville-Davidson, and Jacksonville were the four most integrated of the nation's fifty largest cities, with Memphis at number six. Southern states tend to have a low disparity in incarceration rates between blacks and whites relative to the rest of the country.

Economy

In the last two generations, the South has changed dramatically. In recent decades it has seen a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. Examples of this include the surge in tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast; numerous new automobile production plants such as Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama; the BMW production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina; the GM manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee; and the Nissan North American headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee; the two largest research parks in the country: Research Triangle Park in North Carolina (the world's largest) and the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama (the world's fourth largest); and the corporate headquarters of major banking corporations Bank of America and Wachovia in Charlotte; Regions Financial Corporation, AmSouth Bancorporation, and BBVA Compass in Birmingham; SunTrust Banks and the district headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; and BB&T in Winston-Salem; and several Atlanta-based corporate headquarters and cable television networks, such as CNN, TBS, TNT, Turner South, Cartoon Network, and The Weather Channel. This economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to boast of some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States.

Higher Education

The Southeastern United States is home to a number of prominent universities, with several large research universities of longstanding significance (such as James Madison University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Georgetown University,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida International University, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, Florida State University, University of Florida, Furman University, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, Emory University, Vanderbilt University, University of Tennessee, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Medical College of Georgia, Auburn University, University of Alabama, University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech University, Tulane, University of Alabama Birmingham, University of Miami, Medical University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, University of Southern Mississippi and Georgia Institute of Technology) exerting an influence beyond the region. -->

Research Triangle Park, in the Raleigh-Durham urban area of North Carolina has emerged (over a nearly 50-year existence) as a major hub of technology, governmental and biotechnological research and development, as has the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is the second largest research complex in the nation. It is one of the biggest areas of aerospace engineering and missile defense technology. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the world devoted to the study of magnetism. The University of South Carolina is currently constructing a research campus in downtown Columbia, and the University is the nation’s only National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells.

Largest Cities

These are the ten largest cities in the Southeastern region of the United States by population according to United States Census Bureau on 2008-07-01:.

Rank	City	State	Population
1	Jacksonville	Florida	807,815
2	Charlotte	North Carolina	687,456
3	Memphis	Tennessee	669,651
4	Nashville	Tennessee	596,462
5	Louisville	Kentucky	557,224
6	Atlanta	Georgia	537,958
7	Virginia Beach	Virginia	433,746
8	Miami	Florida	413,201
9	Raleigh	North Carolina	392,552
10	Tampa	Florida	340,882

• ^ a:  Louisville and Nashville, are consolidated city-counties; the population given is for the entire city excluding other incorporated places lying within the county limits.
  

Largest metropolitan areas

These are the fourteen metropolitan areas of the Southeastern region which exceed 1 million in population according to the United States Census Bureau's 2009 estimates:.

Beyond Megalopolis by Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, an attempt to update Jean Gottmann's work with current trends, defines two "megapolitan areas" contained within the Southeast, out of a total of ten such areas in the United States:

• "Piedmont" centered on Atlanta and extending from North Carolina to Alabama
• "Peninsula" covering South Florida and Central Florida

Two others tie some areas on the margins of the Southeast to urban centers in other regions:

• "Gulf Coast" extending as far east as the western tip of Florida
• "Northeast" including much of eastern Virginia

Rank	Metropolitan Area	Anchor City	Population	State(s)
1	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach	Miami	5,547,051	Florida
2	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria	Washington D.C.	5,476,241	District of Columbia / Virginia / Maryland / West Virginia
3	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta	Atlanta	5,475,213	Georgia
4	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater	Tampa	2,747,272	Florida
5	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford	Orlando	2,082,421	Florida
6	Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill	Charlotte	1,745,524	North Carolina / South Carolina
7	Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News	Norfolk	1,674,498	Virginia / North Carolina
8	Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin	Nashville	1,582,264	Tennessee
9	Jacksonville	Jacksonville	1,328,144	Florida
10	Memphis	Memphis	1,304,926	Tennessee / Mississippi / Arkansas
11	Louisville-Jefferson County	Louisville	1,258,577	Kentucky/Indiana
12	Richmond	Richmond	1,238,187	Virginia
13	Birmingham-Hoover	Birmingham	1,131,070	Alabama
14	Raleigh-Cary	Raleigh	1,125,827	North Carolina

References

• Britannica Southeast U.S. video on Youtube