ATLANTA — The Southern Legal Resource Center is calling on self-proclaimed “Confederates” to declare their heritage when they are counted in the 2010 census.

The organization is urging Southerners to declare their heritage and culture by classifying themselves as “Confederate Southern Americans” on question No. 9, which asks for race. Check “other” and write “Confed Southern Am” on the line beside it, the group says on its Facebook page and on two YouTube videos.

“A significant number of Southerners identifying themselves as Confederate Southern Americans on the census form could finally spell the beginning of the end for the discrimination that has been running rampant, especially for the last 20 years or so, against all things Confederate, and for that matter against Southern heritage and identity in general,” executive director Roger McCredie said in a statement. He said this campaign could result in protections for “Confederate Americans” much like those for other groups.

“In this age of honoring diversity, Southern/Confederate people are the last group in America that can be maligned, ridiculed and defamed with impunity,” said Board Chairman Neill Payne.

In a YouTube video, the group’s attorney, Kirk David Lyons, said he frequently hears from people who “complain of being discriminated against, harassed, humiliated, terminated from employment … simply because they are proud of their Southern heritage.”

Lyons noted that there had been several court cases brought against those who displayed Confederate symbols or demonstrated their regional pride and the center’ nationwide effort could “give people of Southern ancestry a voice and legal protections.”

A head start on the 2020 census?

About 20 percent of American households have completed and sent back their 2010 Census forms, the U.S. Census Bureau says, a figure that suggests this year’s head count is on track to at least match participation rates from 2000. As the Census Bureau prepares to tabulate this year’s figures, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have introduced a package of reforms designed to give the agency more political and budgetary independence ahead of the 2020 count. The Census Bureau is the nation’s largest statistical agency and one of a dozen bureaus within the Commerce Department. But career staffers and former agency bosses have long argued that the agency suffers from inconsistent attention in the years between head counts.

— The Washington Post