Fast Forward

White Supremacist Group Vandalized Black History Month Posters At Tenn. College

Members of American Vanguard waiting to disembark for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman February 12, 2018

Members of the white supremacist group American Vanguard pasted their own posters over flyers advertising events for Black History Month at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported last week.

American Vanguard played a large role in organizing the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last yeawr.

The posters showed American Vanguard’s logo and website under an image of Hitler and the words “Hitler Was Right!” The university removed the posters.

“The University supports free speech but not by trampling on the rights of others. More importantly, the expression of such racist, hateful views [has] no place on our campus,” university chancellor Steve Angle said in a statement.

However, another member of the university’s administration said that the posters would have been allowed if American Vanguard had followed proper procedures for putting posters up around campus instead of pasting them on top of pre-existing posters.

HU Staff: Kecia Gayle @kecia.kae No place for hate: The University of Tennessee’s president said vandals at the Chattanooga campus have tried to display racism by covering up posters for black history month with ones referencing Adolf Hitler.________________________________ pic.twitter.com/uRAbzlJlEy

— Paradym Music Group (@ParadymMusicGrp) February 11, 2018

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported shortly after the Charlottesville march that the man who allegedly killed counter-protester Heather Heyer by driving his car into a crowd of people at the rally is allied with American Vanguard.

Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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