Without the Southern States, the rest of us would miss...

[Uncle Joe]

55. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Al Gore,

Harry Truman, Martin Luther King, Bill Moyers.

Patrick Henry

George Mason; author of the Bill of Rights

John Marshall

Whether you like Andrew Johnson or James K. Polk or not, Johnson was President when Alaska was purchased from the Russians and without Polk, the western United would not be the western United States, it would be Mexico.

Cordell Hull (father of the United Nations)

Democratic Underground, without the selection of 2000 and Al Gore's early work in opening the Internet to the American People, this site might not exist. Of course George Bush would probably still be in Connecticut selling peanuts and having wet dreams about pulling wings off flies.

Harper Lee; author of To Kill A Mockingbird and her inspirational father

For those people that can only see a red flag, Lynyrd Skynynd is a most progressive band, they sing against racism, regionalism, gun violence, and drug addiction.

The Dixie Chicks

David (Damn the torpedoes full steam ahead) Farragut, the first Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral and Admiral in the United States Navy.

If Kentucky is counted as a Southern State, the only Supreme Court Justice; John Marshall Harlan(born into a slave holding family) that dissented 7 to 1 against Jim Crow Laws, Plessy vs Ferguson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson

Alvin C. York; single handedly captured over a hundred Germans during World War I.

Louis Armstrong

If you count Missouri as a Southern State, Audie Murphy; the most decorated soldier in U.S. history.

Chester Nimitz

Rosa Parks

Will Rogers, he was born the son of a Confederate Soldier.

Jim Thorpe

Booker T. Washington

If you count Maryland as a Southern state, Babe Ruth

Lewis Chesty Puller; The only Marine in U.S. history to be awarded five Navy Crosses

Pocahantas

Sequoyah; The only known individual to create an alphabet.

Hank Williams

This list is highly incomplete, just a drop in the ocean.

Thanks for the thread, alp.