BREAKING: White nationalists march in to Shelbyville chanting "Closed borders, white nation, now we start the deportation." pic.twitter.com/0KeuEKCIQv
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) October 28, 2017
Hey where have I heard this exact policy solution before? https://t.co/MO75LuxFlQ
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) October 28, 2017
Local reporter Natalie Allison has a whole bunch of short clips from the rally in her Twitter feed. And a nicely observed story in the Tennessean:
… 9:20 a.m. Shelbyville: About 40 minutes before protest was set to begin, more than 50 counter-protesters were waiting to get through a security checkpoint.
A woman is dressed like the statute of liberty. One young man has an “Antifa” flag, the sign for a movement of anti-Fascist, far-left protest groups, draped around him.
There were no signs of white nationalists yet…
10 a.m. Shelbyville: Chad Bagwell, 30, of Centre, Ala. was among the first to arrive on the white nationalists’ side. When he got there at 9:30, the convoy of other protesters hadn’t arrived and police weren’t letting him in to the protest area.
Bagwell held an American flag and was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. He said he planned to bring a Confederate flag, as well, but forgot it.
He said he learned about the rally through a friend on a social networking website. His friend thought he might enjoy attending the White Lives Matter rally, Centre said, which he understood to be about refugee resettlement.
He drove two hours to attend Saturday’s protest.
“I don’t have nothing against refugees, but I do think they need stricter vetting for it,” Bagwell said…
10:05 a.m. Shelbyville: The first members of the League of the South, a white nationalist group that helped organize the White Lives Matter rally, have arrived and are making their way through security…
11:20 a.m. Shelbyville: At least 160 white nationalists have come to the Shelbyville rally. More than 300 counterprotesters are there…
No joke: one of the speakers just complained ppl get “triggered” when he uses the n-word. Next speaker complained about black history month https://t.co/zi072jKKKY
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) October 28, 2017
Wesley Lowery, for the Washington Post:
… Local residents and leaders spent most of the week anxiously wondering how many would travel the rural highway that snakes south from Nashville over Christmas Creek into Shelbyville for a “White Lives Matter” rally planned by several national white supremacist groups.
Such rallies have turned violent, even deadly, in recent months, sparking fears that the Shelbyville gathering could as well. Once the white supremacists showed up — the rally started about an hour late — there was yelling, but no violence.
Rally organizers had anticipated about 175 people, while Tennessee’s racial justice and liberal groups were unsure of how many of their members would attend. Ultimately it appeared that about 300 people attended — about 100 “White Lives Matter” attendees and twice as many counterprotesters…
Organizers included the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group; the Traditionalist Worker Party, which wants a separate white ethno-state; Anti-Communist Action, a right-wing group that believes America is being threatened by communists; and Vanguard America, a white supremacist group that believes America is inherently a white nation that must be preserved. This rally, they said, was specifically about immigration and refugee policies.
Reports from Tennessee: Nazi Snowflakes Have No StaminaPost + Comments (117)