White Supremacists Shoot For Another Charlottesville, This Time In Tennessee

By Sam Kestenbaum October 27, 2017

White nationalist groups are expected to rally this Saturday in Tennessee in what is being called a “White Lives Matter” gathering in the towns of Shelbyville and Murfreesboro.

Speakers on the bill include League of the South president Michael Hill and Matthew Heimbach, a leader in the Traditionalist Worker Party, the Daily News Journal reported. Organizers have also invited Richard Spencer, the self-styled “identitarian” and “alt-right” leader.

These are the same groups and figures who were involved with the “Unite the Right” events in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer that descended into brawls and street fighting. While there are variations within their ideology, the main groups rallying all proscribe to core white nationalist belief, viewing the white nation as imperiled by a rising tide of brown and black people — and see Jews as either causing or profiting from the downfall of the white race.

Anti-fascist counter-protesters are also expected in large numbers. In explaining why white nationalists are targeting this area, organizers cite the “changing demographics of the region” and the resettlement of refugees and other immigrants settling in Middle Tennessee.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO