"I think that being hopeful about the future is a real sign of the South," said Caperton, citing the solidarity and camaraderie displayed after the Olympic bombing in Atlanta this summer.

"I think that we'll continue to wrestle with the things that are bad about our history, but we'll learn [not to repeat them]," said Hayes.

Wilke, however, disagreed with some of the other panelists about the degree of change that has occurred in the South in recent years.

"I think basically we're still very much the Old South and we're still very resistant to change," said Wilke. "Basically, we haven't changed, the country's changed."

Wilke observed that the South has traditionally been unified by shared accents and religion. He added, "In the Midwest, you've got wonderful people there, but you don't really have any character."

Many college students from the South who attended the forum were animated in their responses to the subject of the South's rise, especially considering its history of racial divisions.

"I don't know that the South has a better handle on race relations. [But] Blacks and whites in the South have had to confront each other more," said Edward T. "Ned" Freeman '00, who has lived in North Carolina, Alabama and most recently Louisiana.

Jeffrey P. Yarbro '99, an IOP staffer from Tennessee, said that from his experience, the North is more segregated than the South.

"In the North, there's a polite segregation, whereas in the South you really have to deal with racism," Yarbro said.

"At Harvard, you never hear a racial epithet, but then again, you never see blacks and whites together like you do in the South," he added.

Some undergraduate attendees from the North said they found the forum enlightening.

"You completely forget that there's a world out there that's dominating politics," said Rucker A. Alex '99, an IOP member from the Boston area. "This should have been a mandatory forum for all Cambridge students.