Lendingtree and Honeywell. Automotive manufacturing plants in U.S. have declined in cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and St. Louis, while lower wage, non-unionized work forces in the American South have attracted foreign manufacturers. Automobile manufacturers BMW, Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and Volkswagen have opened plants in states such as Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, and West Virginia. Meanwhile, General Motors factories continue to operate in Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, and two Ford factories operate in Kentucky's largest city of Louisville. High-profile companies such as IBM, Intel, Verizon and Microsoft have major corporate presence in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. Additionally, several Fortune 500 companies, including Tesla, Inc. and a number of technology companies, are now headquartered in Austin, Texas, giving it the nickname of "Silicon Hills". American Airlines Group, the largest airline in the world as of 2019, is headquartered in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in Fort Worth. Dallas is also home to many global corporations, including the largest energy company in the world ExxonMobil, the largest Telecommunication company in the world AT&T, and the company where the microchip was first invented Texas Instruments. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is also the largest metro area in the South. Delta Air Lines, one of the world's largest airlines, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is also home to many global corporations, including The Coca-Cola Company, UPS, CNN, Norfolk Southern, NCR, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. See also Border states Deep South History of the Southern United States Solid South Sun Belt Upland South References Notes Bibliography Ayers, Edward L. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 1992) Brown, D. Clayton. King Cotton: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945 (University Press of Mississippi, 2011) 440 pp. Gaston, Paul M. The New South Creed: A Study in Southern Myth-Making (1976) Tindall, George. The Emergence of the New South, 1913–1945 (1970) . , the classic history. online . Primary sources Clark, Thomas D. Travels in the New South, 1865–1955: A Bibliography (2 vols., 1962), An annotated bibliography of about 1000 books published by travelers in the South; discusses the background of the author, the content, the author's viewpoint or bias, and the quality of the information. Some titles are on line at books.google.com. , the classic statement. By a Harvard professor; focus on race relations External links H-SHGAPE discussion forum for people