The publisher of a small western Alabama newspaper who wrote a controversial editorial that calls "the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" to “clean out D.C.” has been removed from his alma mater’s Communication Hall of Fame.

In 2007, Goodloe Sutton, 79, was inducted into the University of Southern Mississippi's School of Communication Hall of Fame for anti-corruption articles and editorials.

After the Advertiser reported on Sutton's recent editorial in the Democrat-Reporter newspaper in Linden, and subsequent comments, the university removed him from the Hall of Fame.

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"Within the last few hours, the School of Communication at the University of Southern Mississippi learned of Mr. Goodloe Sutton’s call for violence and the return of the Ku Klux Klan," a USM release stated.

"Mr. Sutton’s subsequent rebuttals and attempts at clarification only reaffirm the misguided and dangerous nature of his comments. The School of Communication strongly condemns Mr. Sutton’s remarks as they are antithetical to all that we value as scholars of journalism, the media, and human communication."

After he called for the KKK to ride again on Washington in his Feb. 14 editorial, Sutton explained to the Montgomery Advertiser that the KKK really wasn't violent, and "they didn't kill but a few people. The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be."

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The university's statement also said, “Our University’s values of social responsibility and citizenship, inclusion and diversity, and integrity and civility are the foundation upon which we have built our School and its programs.

“In light of Mr. Sutton’s recent and continued history of racist remarks, however, the School of Communication has removed his place in our Hall of Fame.”

Also on Tuesday, The Auburn Plainsman reported that Auburn University's Journalism Advisory planned to vote to strip Sutton of a community journalism award.

"For a lot of people, the response is just shock. The initial thought was hopefully this is satire. But looking at the reporting around the editorial, we see that he has not backed down from anything he said in the editorial. In fact, he's doubled down," Journalism Advisory Council Chair Anthony Cook said in the Plainsman report.

Linden is located about 100 miles due west of Montgomery near the Mississippi border. Sutton inherited the paper from his father and has worked there since 1964.