WHITEWASHING SOUTHERN LIVING: THE - MOspace

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WHITEWASHING SOUTHERN LIVING:
THE SOCIOCULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1966 MAGAZINE LAUNCH
IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

A Dissertation
Presented to
The Faculty of the Graduate School
At the University of Missouri

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

By
SUMMER HILL VINSON
Dr. Earnest L. Perry, Jr., Dissertation Supervisor

MAY 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Summer Hill Vinson
All rights reserved
The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the
dissertation entitled
WHITEWASHING SOUTHERN LIVING:
THE SOCIOCULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1966 MAGAZINE LAUNCH
IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

Presented by Summer Hill Vinson,
A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.

______________________________
Professor Mark M. Carroll

______________________________
Professor Berkley Hudson

______________________________
Professor Earnest L. Perry, Jr.

______________________________
Professor Yong Volz

______________________________
Professor Robert E. Weems, Jr.
DEDICATION

This dissertation would not have been possible without support from my family,
who ensured I had time to write.

My parents, David G. Hill and Maryann Trevillion Hill, are born educators, believing that
learning never ceases. They are also Mississippians who are unafraid of addressing the
most difficult questions, and I am fortunate they shared them with me.
This dissertation is for them.

This dissertation is also for my husband, JP, who patiently listened to every detail of it
from beginning to end. We have already walked many difficult roads together.
Thank you for your endless support and love.

Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my son, Jacob. My tiny child, I look forward to a
lifetime of surprises with you. When you are old enough to read this dissertation, know
this: you were the sweetest of distractions during this process, a reminder that life waits
for no one. I hope you will remember Dr. James Silver’s wisdom:
“The strongest preservative of the closed society is the closed mind.”
I love you beyond measure.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research began at the University of Mississippi, where I found a home in the
journalism department among many fine professors and instructors. Dr. Samir Husni,
Mr. Magazine, so adores magazines that his enthusiasm is contagious. The Center for the
Study of Southern Culture fostered my interest in southern history, politics, and literature.
It was in a Southern Studies class that a professor first asked me about the southerner in
Southern Living. I am especially appreciative of Dr. Kathryn McKee, whose guidance
extended beyond the classroom.
Many kind and knowledgeable people aided me in my research at the University
of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, Texas A&M University, and Southern
Progress. I am especially indebted to Laurl Self, the former librarian at Southern
Progress. The staff at the Missouri School of Journalism’s library spent hours upon hours
aiding me in my research, and I will miss their expertise.
The University of Missouri’s history department challenged me in ways I never
anticipated, for which I am grateful. The Missouri School of Journalism has unlimited
potential in the number of brilliant people associated with it, and I am honored to have
been a small part of it.
My dissertation advisor, Dr. Earnest L. Perry, Jr., has been a guide to the many
mysteries of the doctoral education, and I appreciate all the wisdom he has imparted. My
sincerest thanks also to my committee members: Dr. Mark M. Carroll, Dr. Berkley
Hudson, Dr. Yong Volz, and Dr. Robert E. Weems, Jr. They have all graciously invested
their time and energy toward my academic growth.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...…………………………………………..………………..…ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………….…………………….……...…v
1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………..………….……1
2. CHAPTER ONE…………………………………………………….………………...16
A Precursor to the 1960s……………………………………………………..…..24
Race in the American South…………………………………………………..…27
“Bombingham” ……………………………………………………..………...…33
3. CHAPTER TWO……………………………………………………..……………….44
The Men Behind the Launch…………………………………………………..…46
Diversification Plans……………………………………………………..………52
Convincing the Board……………………………………………………..…..…56
The Time Is Now……………………………………………………..……….…66
4. CHAPTER THREE……………………………………………………..………….…70
Nunn’s Loyalty to Farming……………………………………………………....72
The Archaic Structure of Progressive Farmer Company……………………...…78
What is Southern? …………………………………………………………….…81
Researching the Audience………………………………………………………..91
Putting on the Brakes…………………………………………………………….96
5. CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………..……………..100
Targeting the Audience…………………………………………………………104
Streamlining the Editorial Concept……………………………………………..107
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Outside Advice………………………………………………………………….115
Publicizing the Launch…………………………………………………………121
6. CHAPTER FIVE……………………………………………………..……………...128
Travel Promotion……………………………………………………………….132
Economic Boosterism…………………………………………………………..137
Regional History………………………………………………………………..142
Defining Southerners…………………………………………………………...148
Shifting Content, Steady Message……………………………………………...157
7. CHAPTER SIX……………………………………………………..………………..161
Refining the Editorial Content………………………………………………….163
The Response to Southern Living………………………………………………168
Changes at Progressive Farmer Company……………………………………...185
8. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………..………….….....193
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………..………………..………………..…..…205
VITA……………………………………………………..…………………….……….215

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WHITEWASHING SOUTHERN LIVING:
THE SOCIOCULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1966 MAGAZINE LAUNCH
IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

Summer Hill Vinson

Dr. Earnest L. Perry, Jr., Dissertation Supervisor

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine Progressive Farmer Company’s 1966
launch of Southern Living magazine in Birmingham, Alabama, in its sociocultural
context. The publisher of Progressive Farmer, the largest magazine in the South,
launched Southern Living when Birmingham was at the epicenter of the civil rights
movement. The primary research question was: How did Southern Living magazine
reflect or reject its sociocultural environment? This study examined more than one
thousand archival documents and reviewed Southern Living magazine’s first four years of
content. It found that Southern Living was the result of extensive preparation to target a
new audience of affluent urban and suburban southerners. Struggles between company
leaders at Progressive Farmer Company over Southern Living’s content mirrored tension
between white southerners in the region. Overall, the magazine was a rejection of the
significant societal change in the region. It represented a way to reconfigure white
southern identity in a nostalgic way that allowed readers to escape the tension of the
1960s, but it also negated the place of African Americans in southern culture. This
research extends scholarship on the role of magazines in American culture, contributes to
the understanding of Birmingham, Alabama, during the civil rights movement, and is the
definitive history of Southern Living magazine’s launch.
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INTRODUCTION

Since January 2007, more than 200 employees have lost their jobs at the Southern
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Progress Company headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. The media landscape has
undergone an earthquake of change in recent years, from mergers and sell-offs to a
myriad of demands on audience attention and advertising revenue. This change has not
spared the magazine industry, which is experiencing its own identity crisis. The revenue
triangle of advertisers supplementing the cost of publication in exchange for access to a
niche audience is no longer necessarily sustainable.
Southern Living was one of a trend of niche magazines during the 1960s.
Progressive Farmer Company (now renamed Southern Progress) launched it in 1966 to
reach prosperous southerners moving off the farm and into cities. It recognized a hole in
both advertising and editorial content that targeted the American South, and it formulated
the magazine to fill that gap. A small group of men planned the launch, and they also
shaped Southern Living in their image—the magazine was their representation of
southern identity, made for southerners by southerners. The launch was successful nearly
from the start, as its founders navigated the potential pitfalls of behind the scenes
dissention and disagreement about what the magazine should represent. In the end, the
individuals who pressed for a cheerful depiction of the good life prevailed, and within a
matter of months, Southern Living was profitable. When in 1985, nineteen years after the
magazine launch, Time Inc. bought Southern Living and its parent company, it paid more

1
Jimmy DeButts, “Southern Progress Cuts More Jobs as Advertising Revenue Slips,” Birmingham
Business Journal, 12 November 2009, available from http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/
stories/2009/11/09/daily31.html.
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money for them than any other magazine company in the United States had ever received
in a buyout.
Now, more than two decades later, the magnificent stone-and-steel Southern
Progress headquarters still stands. It was designed to highlight the natural beauty of the
foothills of the Appalachians just southeast of Birmingham, but the building is a reminder
of better times. Southern Living was once a prized possession to a media empire; now its
future is less certain. The weak economy has compounded pressure on traditional media
companies. Perhaps as a sign of the things to come, in January 2007 Time Inc. sold
Progressive Farmer, the magazine that started it all, and now a small staff publishes it
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just a mile down the road from Southern Living. One of the reasons for the sale was that
Time Inc. had a number of “niche brands” that did not fit into the company’s plans for the
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future.
The story of Southern Living magazine’s launch is about magazine specialization
in the United States during the 1960s, a time when the future of magazines was anything
but secure and when understanding audience wants and needs proved particularly
necessary to survive the changes. It is also about the Butler family whose lives
intertwined with Progressive Farmer Company, specifically Eugene Butler who helped
turn a family business into a publishing powerhouse. Finally, this story is about white
southerners clinging to an idyllic identity and a tenuous status quo during the turbulent

2
Jimmy DeButts, “Progressive Farmer Parent Sold for $445M,” Birmingham Business Journal, 19
September 2008, available from http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2008/09/22/story9.
html.
3
“Progressive Farmer Magazine Sold,” LA Times, 3 January 2007, available from http://articles.latimes.
com/2007/jan/03/entertainment/et-magazine3.
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