Victoria Smalls, the former executive director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (GGCHC), has filed a lawsuit against the organization’s governing body, alleging it wrongfully fired her in November 2023.
Smalls is alleging breach of contract, defamation and breach of contract with fraudulent intent, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year in the 14th Judicial Circuit that includes Beaufort County. As a result of her termination, Smalls also alleges she suffered physical, mental and emotional damage.
Smalls is asking for a jury trial. She is seeking unspecified actual and compensatory damages against the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission (GGCHCC). Her attorney, Donald Gist of Columbia, said recently that Smalls “was doing an excellent job. It seems like there is an issue that arises in the day-to-day operation of the executive job. It looks like there was a territorial fight” between Smalls and the commission’s chairperson, Dionne Hoskins-Brown of Savannah, Ga., he said.
In July 2021, Smalls, a St. Helena Island native, was named GGCHC executive director of the Beaufort-based group. The corridor’s commission is the policy-making body for the corridor created by the U.S. Congress in 2006 to protect Gullah Geechee culture, natural resources and historic sites in a narrow four-state coastal region that extends from Wilmington, N.C., to St. Augustine, Fla.
Last year after her termination, Smalls told the Charleston City Paper in a text message that she was “no longer working with the GGCHC. I have launched my new consulting firm Smalls Cultural Resources.” She has since declined further comment.
But in the lawsuit, Small claimed that on Sept. 29, 2023, while she was away at a conference, Hoskins-Brown emailed her to inform her that an [employee] complaint had been filed against her. An investigation then started, but Smalls alleged Hoskins-Brown terminated her on Nov. 24, 2023, following a commission meeting even though the investigation was ongoing.
While the investigation was being done, Smalls said Hoskins-Brown told her to place the staff on leave for 45 days.
Smalls also alleges Hoskin-Brown told her to keep the investigation confidential, but another commissioner, Griffin Lotson, contacted her and said he had been asked to participate in the investigation.
Hoskins-Brown and Lotson, the commission’s vice chairman, have declined to comment. In a recent text message to the City Paper Hoskins-Brown said the commission so far does not have a lawyer to represent it.
According to the lawsuit, Smalls said she was “blindsided, heartbroken and confused” as none of the staff had expressed concerns about her management style.
Last November after the commission announced it was looking for a new executive director, Hoskins-Brown told the City Paper that “Victoria was phenomenally talented as a cultural advocate and orator who had extraordinary personal testimony. We valued that. Moving forward, the commission recognized a need for even stronger communication with our stakeholders and communities and next-level implementation.”
At that time, Lotson of Darien, Ga., said, “I am glad [Victoria] is bouncing back. That is a good thing for her under the circumstances. She has been good to the Gullah Geechee culture.”
During her two years of service, Smalls oversaw the move of the corridor’s office from Johns Island to Beaufort. In October 2023, she represented the corridor during meetings in Barbados where the corridor and Barbados signed an agreement to promote tourism and culture jointly.
The corridor is one of 62 National Heritage Areas managed by the National Park Service (NPS). It is unique, however. because the stories told in the corridor only come from one group, Gullah Geechee people within the 440-mile long corridor.
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