Southern Partisan is a neo-Confederate online magazine based in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It is focused on the Southern region and states that were formerly members of the Confederate States of America. Founded in 1979 as Southern Partisan Quarterly Review, its first editor was Thomas Fleming. From 1999 to 2009 it was edited by Christopher Sullivan. After 2009 it ceased print publication and is now only online. It has been called "arguably the most important neo-Confederate periodical" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The magazine generally espouses a pro-southern perspective on political issues and the American Civil War. The magazine features commentary on southern culture, history, literature, the Southern Agrarians, the Civil War and Confederacy, and current political issues. Its news section "CSA Today" covers stories from each of the eleven former Confederate states, as well as Missouri and Kentucky, which the Confederate States claimed to have admitted.

The magazine is harshly critical of what it describes as "politically correct" policy-making, such as the removal of Confederate historical monuments. It also gives out a "Scalawag Award" in each issue to Southerners who act contrary to the magazine's editorial position.

Reviews of books about the southern United States appear in each issue, as do general political opinion pieces from conservative and libertarian perspectives. The magazine has carried columns by syndicated opinion commentators including Walter Williams, William Murchison, Joseph Sobran, and Charley Reese.

Views and reception

The SPLC dates the earliest contemporary usage of the term "neo-Confederate" to a 1988 Southern Partisan article.

Ed Sebesta has written that Southern Partisan and Chronicles are the "major publications" of the Confederate movement. Slate described Southern Partisan as a "crypto-racist, pro-Confederate magazine." In 2000, the president of the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way called Southern Partisan "racist", pointing to columns that criticize Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, and alleged that it views slavery favorably. The Times report noted a Southern Partisan article describing white slave traders as being better to slaves than African warlords. According to the Times report, Southern Partisan "takes the position that the Civil War was fought not over slavery, but over the preservation of a Southern way of life that to this day is worth preserving."

References

  • The Southern Partisan magazine website