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Residents and members of the community were terrified by the militaristic display.
On Saturday, the Patriot Front, a well-known white supremacist group, marched through downtown Nashville.
The group, notorious for its far-right views, donned khaki cargo pants, blue shirts, and white masks, emerging from several U-Haul trucks in a display of militaristic intimidation,reports Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF. Transporting people in the cargo area of box trucks is against U-Haul’s companypolicy.
More than 100 members participated in the march, carrying shields, Confederate flags, and a “Reclaim America” banner, according to several videos spread online. The group’s leader, Thomas Rousseau, amplified his message of nationalism and white supremacy through a bullhorn, asserting the superiority of their ancestors and the inevitability of their nationalist vision.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has longidentified Patriot Front as a “white nationalist hate group,” tracing its origins to the aftermath of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Va. The group’s actions on Saturday, designed to intimidate and provoke, sparked immediate and widespread condemnation.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell took to X (formerlyTwitter) to denounce the march and the normalization of such hate-filled displays. “I refuse to platform hate actors, so I have no interest in giving any group or member the attention they seek,” O’Connell stated. “Just because someone is exercising their First Amendment rights does not mean we must accept someone shamelessly identifying as a Nazi as just another American. And in Nashville, we won’t.”
The TennesseeDemocratic Party also condemned the group’s actions, callingRepublican lawmakers to join them in denouncing the march. “While our Republican state leaders sit quietly by, we refuse to let hate-filled racists terrorize our community,” party chair Hendrell Remus declared, according to WTVF.
Tenessee state Rep. Justin Jones called out the extremists in a post on X.
“White supremacists marching outside the Tennessee Capitol today,” he wrote. “This comes after a march of neo-Nazis in the Spring and Proud Boys rallying there a year ago. Shame on my Republican colleagues who continue to welcome these hate groups to our state with racist laws and rhetoric.”
Local organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, expressed outrage and demanded accountability. “We condemn this activity in the strongest possible way and denounce the perpetrators as cowards and criminals,” the federation said in a statement,reports Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN.
However, some Republicans cast doubt on the makeup of Patriot Front members.Utah U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a prominent Trump loyalist, suggested without evidence that the event could have been a “false flag” operation. “I’ve never heard of this group. Any chance this is a false flag operation?” Lee tweeted, casting doubt on the authenticity of the march despite the group’s well-documented history. “So much uniformity. It hardly has the feel of a grassroots, patriotic group.”
According to videos posted online, members of the far-right Proud Boys got involved in a fight with Patriot Front members, beating a group of them and tearing their masks from their faces, exposing their identities.
The unsettling event follows a similar incidentreported byThe Advocate in 2022 when Idaho police arrested over 30 members of the Patriot Front as they traveled to disrupt anLGBTQ+ Pride event in Coeur d’Alene. The group’s members, found with riot gear and a smoke grenade, were charged with conspiracy to riot. According to local law enforcement, the arrests potentially prevented a violent confrontation. In July 2023, five members were sentenced to several days in jail for their roles in the conspiracy.
