Chuck and Stacy Reece Launch Salvation South

ATLANTA (December 6, 2021) -- Chuck and Stacy Reece announce the launch of Salvation South, a highly anticipated online publication providing a platform for leading Southern writers to address the larger and more vexing issues facing the region. Harkening back to slower, simpler times, when gracious hospitality and porch conversations helped diffuse divisions, the Reeces founded Salvation South to build a home for hope in the American South.

With inspiring editorial by Chuck and a general store of merchandise richly curated by Stacy, Salvation South is designed to spur civil conversation about issues of importance and promote the stories of Southerners of all colors and backgrounds. Salvation South celebrates the myriad ways in which Southern culture unities us - through topics that include food, literature, music, hospitality and manners.

The idea for Salvation South was born when Chuck left The Bitter Southerner, which he co-founded in 2013, at the height of the pandemic. Chuck’s focus at The Bitter Southerner had been to debunk stereotypes of the South and Southerners. As the world has changed, so have the needs of the Southern narrative.

“The events of the last few years made me question everything,” said Chuck. “In the late 2010s, our country began to shift in ways not seen since the 1960s. First, the tone and tenor of our dialogue began to move, and we seemed to have lost the ability to agree to disagree when the conversation was over. Today, we are truly judging the hearts of our fellow citizens — their very worth as human beings — by the positions they take in the political world.”

After George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery were killed by police, kicking off nationwide protests, at a time when the COVID pandemic was taking hold, we stopped congregating in public spaces and started getting our information about the state of the world only from cable news and social media. Then came a presidential campaign with charges about campaign fraud.

We had become a nation at each other’s throats.

“It became clear to me that stereotypes were the least of our region’s problems,” said Chuck. “The division afflicting our entire nation — and particularly the states in the South — had become our largest problem.”

So, with Salvation South, Chuck will apply his unique gifts — as an editor and an assembler of community — to the state of the South today. Inspired by the idea of bringing people of different races together to talk through the difficult issues of racial reconciliation, Salvation South voices hope for the nation and our region.

“I discovered a quality that was particular to the South: how much all of us who were born and raised here want to celebrate our common culture.” said Chuck. “In short, we believe this approach will foster civil conversation. If Salvation South isn’t publishing content that spurs civil conversation about issues of importance, then it will be publishing celebrations of our culture and how all of us who formed it did so together.”