Southerners who violently aimed to uphold white supremacy, in opposition to the so-called carpetbaggers and scallywags who promoted Reconstruction governments, black citizenship, and black political activity. Government also implies the bitter legacy of the civil rights era, when many—though certainly not all—white Southerners viewed federal efforts to desegregate schools, lunch counters, voting booths, and hospitals as threats to the so-called Southern way of life.1
