BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Blacks have a complicated love affair with the South. Their ancestors we... Blacks embrace South...

Their ancestors were enslaved in the region for generations, then Jim Crow laws pushed them to the back of the bus. From inner-city slums to old plantation counties, being black too often still means a second-class existence.

Yet surveys show blacks who live in the South are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group - even whites - to identify themselves as Southerners. It's a label millions claim with pride and affection, yet uneasiness.

For many black people, feelings for the South come back to family, summer cookouts, stories told on the porch, graciousness, gospel and Atlanta hip-hop. Their emotional ties are no less strong, even as they see a place that has yet to completely live down its past.

"As an African-American Southerner, I enjoy our culture that includes our famous Southern charm and hospitality," said Stephen Wicks of Savannah, Ga., co-owner of BlackBusinessList.com, a Web-based company that links minority businesses.

"On the other hand, it's very hard to walk the streets and see constant reminders of slavery and white supremacy," he said. "That Confederate statue may simply be a piece of history to my white brother or sister, but to me it represents a very dark period in American history."

Bryan Stevenson, a Montgomery attorney who specializes in representing death-row inmates, has similar mixed feelings churning within him. A Delaware native educated at Harvard University, Stevenson has lived in Alabama since 1989 handling capital cases.

"I have a lot of happy and pleasant thoughts about living in the South," Stevenson said. "However, I do think that being black means you feel at risk. You frequently feel subordinate because of a lack of power."

According to census statistics analyzed by the Center for Demographic Research at Auburn University Montgomery, 27.1 percent of the South's 12 million black residents lived below the federal poverty level in 1999, compared with 23.7 percent of blacks in the rest of the United States. Researchers say at least some of the disparity is linked to higher overall poverty rates in the South, affecting whites as well as blacks.

Southern blacks are also less likely than other U.S. blacks to graduate from high school or college, the analysis showed, and almost half - 48 percent - lived in a household with an income of less than $25,000.

On their face, the numbers suggest a people who wouldn't want any part of being called a Southerner. Yet a series of surveys found just the opposite.

Twice-yearly polls from 1991 through 2001 that were analyzed by the University of North Carolina found 78 percent of blacks in the region claimed the label "Southerner," compared with 75 percent of whites. The results punched a hole in the long-held assumption that only whites are proud to be from the South.

"Generally speaking, blacks are about as positive about the South as white folks," said Larry J. Griffin, who teaches sociology and history at North Carolina.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, who along with Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, doesn't see any irony. He said it's actually easier for blacks to identify with the region because they don't carry the taint of its history.

"Blacks don't have that sense of guilt," the 84-year-old Alabama native said. "I mean, we never perpetrated any evil acts against people on the basis of race. So I guess we just don't have to carry that burden."

A recent study by the Brookings Institution found that the South has had a net in-migration of more than 566,000 blacks since 1995, while the other three regions all had net losses, reversing a decades-long trend of Southern black flight. The same study found that college-educated blacks led this new charge back to the South.

"Whites who are moving there are doing it for the economy, the warm weather, the amenities - they're not moving there to eat grits and become Southerners," said demographer William H. Frey, the study's author. "For blacks, the economy's important for them, too. But they see it as coming home. There's a strong cultural bond."

Indeed, some blacks talk about the South in a way that sounds a lot like the stereotypical white Southerner. David Jansson, an assistant professor in geography at Vassar College, has written extensively on the complexities of Southern identity. In a study comparing the attitudes of blacks in Lynchburg, Va., with those of members of the pro-secession League of the South, he found striking similarities - affinity for Confederate symbols aside.

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