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," said Stevenson. "However, I do think that being black means you feel at risk. You frequently feel subordinate because of a lack of power."

That impotence is economic in many ways.

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 to 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 to 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."

In a way, Lowery said, blacks, more than any other group, have earned the right to call themselves Southerners.

"The changes that have taken place in the South came at the initiative and the insistence of Southern blacks. ... It was Southern blacks who led the way."

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.

"Being Southern meant valuing family, community, a slow pace of life, rural landscapes, and so on," he said.

"Values are stressed here; family, community, honor," said Bianca Matlock, who is from Arkansas and attends historically black Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.

"Northerners are not used to the gesture of Southern hospitality," she said. "The female values of the `Southern Belle' representing grace and integrity are only found in the South."

As much as she likes the South, Matlock still comes back to Confederate symbols that, to her, are reminders of pain and suffering. She just doesn't understand whites who see them as benign symbols of "The Lost Cause."

"In my nearly white neighborhood, I see the Confederate flag. In fact, my neighbors explained to me that it's a sign of heritage just as the Black Panther sign is to some African-Americans and not of racial implications," she said. "Yeah, right."

Charles Evers, 82, is part of a generation of blacks who endured the worst of the South before desegregation. His brother, former NAACP leader Medgar Evers, was murdered by a white racist in Mississippi in 1963.

Still, he thinks of the South as a place of unending opportunity for blacks, whites and everyone in between.

"I've traveled all over the world, and I'll tell you: There is no place as honest as the South about its racial feelings," he said. "I think it can be the most wonderful place in the world if we can just keep making the progress we have."

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Associated Press Writer Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.