North Greenville professor says beliefs cost him job

GREENVILLE, S.C.-- A former North Greenville College art professor has sued the school, saying he was fired because he belongs to an organization that seeks the independence of Southern people.

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Joseph Scott Goldsmith, a member of the League of the South, was fired after making comments to faculty members who he felt were bashing the South during a discussion of the movie, "Gods and Generals," according to Goldsmith's suit.

"He expressed some opinions that apparently alerted some folks that he held some very strong views as it relates to Southern heritage," said attorney W. Andrew Arnold of Greenville.

Goldsmith claims art department chairman Jim Craft told him on June 20 that he could no longer work at the college because he was a member of the League of the South.

The college, a Christian liberal arts college with about 1,500 students in Tigerville, had no comment Tuesday on the lawsuit filed in Greenville County.

The League of the South seeks to "advance the cultural, social, economic and political well-being and independence of the Southern people by all honourable means," according to its Web site. It has been labeled a neo-Confederate hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The designation is unfair and has caused "employment problems" for a number of its members, according to one of the League's founders, University of South Carolina history professor Clyde Wilson.

"The league has repudiated violence and racism, and all of its activities have been peaceful and open to public scrutiny," Wilson said.

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On the Net: League of the South: http://www.dixienet.org

North Greenville College: http://sharepoint.ngc.edu/home/

--From the Wednesday, July 30, 2003 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle