I don’t think the hippies were ruling the south because they looked cross eyed at anybody with long hair. Best typified by this Charlie Daniels song from 1973.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJrRwTTqm0o
So true. The South did not “do” hippies. I graduated from High School in 1968 in Montgomery, Alabama. My dad was in the Air Force and we stationed there. I met a local boy and got married in 1969. My husband made a career with the Air National Guard there. He is still in the DOD as a contractor. I don’t remember anything different because of the epidemic.We graduated over 700 students in an non air conditioned coliseum. We went to horse shows every weekend. Now the horse industry(which is a lot bigger than most people think) is being destroyed like everything else. We are a nation of cowards now.