The Southern Military Institute is a proposed all-male Christian military academy. It was proposed as a response to the court decisions allowing women into Virginia Military Institute

Virginia Military Institute

The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...

 (VMI) and The Citadel

The Citadel (military college)

The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States...

. The proponents wish to create an environment similar to that of VMI in the 19th century. The Southern Poverty Law Center

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...

 (SPLC) has labeled it a neoconfederate group. Its head is COL Michael J. Guthrie, Ph.D. (USA Ret.) of Madison, Alabama, a research physicist and retired National Guard Officer. Guthrie has been criticized by the national media and the SPLC for being a former member of the League of the South

League of the South

The League of the South is a Southern nationalist organization, headquartered in Killen, Alabama, which states that its ultimate goal is "a free and independent Southern republic." The group defines the Southern United States as the states that made up the former Confederacy...

 and for having promoted the school at a convention of the Council of Conservative Citizens

Council of Conservative Citizens

The Council of Conservative Citizens is an American political organization that supports a large variety of conservative and paleoconservative causes in addition to white nationalism, and white separatism...

.

It was once planned to be built in Shelbyville, Tennessee

Shelbyville, Tennessee

Shelbyville is a city in Bedford County, Tennessee, United States. It had a local population of 16,105 residents at the 2000 census. Shelbyville, the county seat of Bedford County, was laid out in 1810 and incorporated in 1819...

, but the proponents were not able to raise sufficient funds to purchase the property. Subsequently the group sought to purchase another site in Middle Tennessee, the old Franklin County High School (FCHS) in Winchester, Tennessee

Winchester, Tennessee

Winchester is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...

, but that effort was ended July 2006. Earlier attempts at purchasing the former campus of Ambassador College

Ambassador College

Ambassador College was a four-year, liberal arts college run by the Worldwide Church of God. The college was established in 1947 in Pasadena, California by radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong, leader of what was then the Radio Church of God, later renamed the Worldwide Church of God...

 in Big Sandy, Texas

Big Sandy, Texas

Big Sandy is a town in Upshur County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town's population was 1,288. A lake of the same name is cut nearly in half by U.S. Highway 80, the main thoroughfare of Big Sandy....

 and Morristown College

Morristown College

Morristown College, located in Morristown, Tennessee was founded in 1881 by the national Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The school was renamed Knoxville College-Morristown in 1989 and closed in 1994....

 in Morristown, Tennessee

Morristown, Tennessee

Morristown is a city in, and the county seat of, Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 29,137 at the 2010 United States Census. It is the principal city of the Morristown, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Grainger, Hamblen and Jefferson counties...

 were also unscuccessful. SMI is currently exploring the possibility of acquiring the old Tennessee Military Institute

Tennessee Military Institute

Tennessee Military Institute, also known as TMI Academy, began as Sweetwater Military College, founded by Presbyterian minister J. Lynn Bachman, and was located just outside Sweetwater, Tennessee. It closed in 1988. The buildings were later used by Tennessee Meiji Gakuin, a school intended for high...

 (TMI) property in Sweetwater, Tennessee

Sweetwater, Tennessee

Sweetwater is a city in Monroe and McMinn counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the most populous city in Monroe County. The population was 5,586 at the 2000 census. Sweetwater is the home of the Craighead Caverns which contains the Lost Sea, the United States' largest underground...

 and other opportunities in Franklin County, Tennessee

Franklin County, Tennessee

Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 41,052. Its county seat is Winchester.Franklin County is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee, Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

. To date, no property has been acquired for the campus, although fundraising and planning continues.

External links

• Official website
• EverVigilant.net - Why We Need the Southern Military Institute, 12/15/2004
• United States Action – The Neo-Confederates (apparently reprinted from Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Issue No. 99, Summer 2000
• Southern Poverty Law Center - The Neo-Confederates
• http://www.suntimes.com/output/education/cst-nws-south09.html
• "Enlisting In The American (Confederate) Army" by Ed Sebesta