Should a Prof Speak Before Group Seeking Southern Secession?

An economics professor at Loyola University Maryland, Thomas DiLorenzo, was criticized at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing where he testified last week because he previously gave a lecture at a meeting of the League of the South, a group that calls for the secession of Southern states from the United States, The Baltimore Sun reported. Representative William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) raised questions (in a hearing about the Federal Reserve) about DiLorenzo's testimony because "you work for a Southern nationalist organization that espouses very radical notions about American history and the federal government." DiLorenzo said that the talk was years ago, and did not mean that he backed the group. He told the Sun: "I don't endorse what they say and do any more than I endorse what Congress says and does because I spoke at a hearing on Wednesday."