Pulled this from a CNN article today about Trent Lott's new book. It says alot about the quiet racism in the South, and the continued denial.
A native of Mississippi, Lott recalled feeling "anger in my heart over the way the federal government had invaded Ole Miss to accomplish something that could have been handled peacefully and administratively," a reference to the admission of the University of Mississippi's first black student in 1962.
After nearly 100 years of emancipation, the South still "didn't get it." For both slavery and civil rights, there is still an effort to blame the North/Federal government as having not given them enough time to deal with it on their own. It's like blaming the doctor for ordering you to quit smoking after you develop lung cancer. "I was gonna quit...really...sometime before I died anyway."