Joseph Scott Goldsmith has been an adjunct art professor at South Carolina's North Greenville College for six years (here's a sample of his work). He expected to return this fall for a seventh year at the school, and had an oral agreement with college administrators confirming that they expected him back. But that was before Goldsmith's colleagues learned that he is a member of the League of the South, a secessionist group that, according to the group's web site, aims to "advance the cultural, social, economic, and political well-being and independence of the Southern People by all honorable means." The group has been labelled a neo-Confederate hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. That's wrong, says founding member and University of South Carolina history professor Clyde Wilson. As Wilson told the Greenville News, "The League has repudiated violence and racism and all of its activities have been peaceful and open to public scrutiny. ... However, any positive position on things Southern and any critical disposition toward the federal government makes people angry." There are about twenty-five college professors among the League's members (you can see a list of "affiliated scholars and artists" here).

Goldsmith's colleagues discovered his membership in the League after he attended a faculty gathering to discuss the film "Gods and Generals." When some people made comments that Goldsmith perceived as bashing the South, he spoke up in the South's defense (we have no transcript of what was said, but it's reasonable to assume that Goldsmith's comments might have gone something like this or this or this). In the words of Goldsmith's lawyer, "He expressed some opinions that apparently alerted some folks that he held some very strong views as it relates to Southern Heritage." Those "folks" then got online to see what they could dig up on Goldsmith. Shortly after, Goldsmith was informed by the art department chairman that his teaching career at North Greenville College was over. According to Goldsmith, the chairman did not mince words. He stated flat out that the reason Goldsmith was no longer welcome at the school was because because he belonged to the League of the South.

Goldsmith has filed a lawsuit against the school. North Greenville College is a small, private, Christian liberal arts school--so Goldsmith does not technically have the First Amendment on his side. But what he does have is a South Carolina law that forbids employers from firing employees because of their political beliefs. That should do the trick.