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Live Blog: White Lives Matter Rallies In Tennessee

Police in tactical gear line up in the Murfreesboro square waiting on white supremacist protesters. Credit: Julieta MartinelliWPLN
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Editor’s note: This blog will be updated throughout Saturday as White Lives Matter rallies organized by the League of the South are held in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro. For more tweets on the ground, follow @ItsJMartinelli and @ChasSisk.


Updated 5:00 p.m.

Authorities in Chapel Hill say the event at Henry Horton State Park has concluded without any violence.

The city of Murfreesboro has also put out a report following the limited action on the town square. Between 800 and 1,000 counter protestors showed up, according to the city’s count.

“We are relieved everyone was safe and the downtown area was protected,” the sheriff and interim police chief said in a joint statement.

Updated 4:15 p.m.

It’s unclear whether counter protesters will follow, but the White Lives Matter organizers have moved to Henry Horton State Park in Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill is
where Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was born. The Ku Klux Klan’s founder has been at the center of Tennessee’s post-Charlottesville debate, with efforts to
take down his bust from the state capitol and
move a memorial in Memphis.

Updated 3:30 p.m.

The white supremacist rallies may be winding down in Tennessee, and Shelbyville is already thanking law enforcement for the advance planning.

“The positive outcome of this rally is a product of that extensive planning along with the ability to keep the groups separated,” the city manager said
in a statement posted to Facebook.

Officers made an unprecedented show of force for a local rally, with helicopters, armored vehicles, state agents and even rooftop snipers.

One protester among the white nationalists was arrested, though it now appears
he was a counter protester. There were no reports of violence.

Updated 3:15 p.m.

A spokesman for the White Lives Matter rally says Murfreesboro is called off.

Updated 3:00 p.m.

The White Lives Matter protest permit in Murfreesboro expires at 4 p.m., and most of those who were in Shelbyville still haven’t arrived.

Many counter protesters lined the streets coming in from Shelbyville, but a caravan never came. Only a handful went through security on the white nationalist side.

Updated 2:45 p.m.

Some observations from WPLN’s Chas Sisk as the focus shifts from Shelbyville to Murfreesboro:

Unlike in Charlottesville, demonstrators were not rallied around a single cause, like a border wall or Confederate statues. Instead the goal appeared to simply be a show of strength.

And Harry Hughes, who calls himself a National Socialist from Arizona, says being provocative was the point.

“We come out. We dress in uniforms. We have symbols and things, that gets people’s attention,” he says. “They look and they listen.”

The Traditional Workers Party says white nationalists want to demonstrate their strength. TWP leader Matthew Heimbach says the mission was to show “we are going to be everywhere.”

“They can attack us with the boot boys of the system, these anti-fascist thugs. They can attack us with lawsuits. They can condemn us in the halls of the Washington elite. But we will continue marching,” he says.

There were probably double the number of counter-protesters in Shelbyville. Darlye Lamont Jenkins drove all the way from Philadelphia to confront white supremacists.

“And I think it’s important that people should know who they are and what they’re about,” Jenkins says. “And once they find out who they’re about and who they are … they respond to them in an adverse way towards them.”

Updated 2:00 p.m.

Why Murfreesboro?

When the League of the South applied for a permit to rally on the square (which was granted) the stated reason was to honor fallen Confederate soldiers.

The Murfreesboro square — like many towns in Tennessee — has a monument to Confederate troops killed in the Civil War.

This monument hasn’t been much of a flashpoint. More recently, Murfreesboro has been battling over the name of MTSU’s ROTC building, named after Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest (who, relevant fact, was born near Shelbyville).

The school and university system agreed to change it. But the state’s historical commission hasn’t signed off yet. It won’t consider the request
until February.

Among the protesters in Shelbyville, many wore Confederate flags or other Civil War garb. The League of the South has the stated goal of secession and preserving what it considers “southern culture.”

Updated 1:15 p.m.

Now the action moves 25 miles up Highway 231 to Murfreesboro.

There may be even more law enforcement presence in Murfreesboro, where the city flatly asked residents to stay away from the town square today.

After seeing the shields and masks that people got through security in Shelbyville, Murfreesboro is emphasizing that the rules will be enforced.

The permit, which was granted by the city,
runs from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Police have said they will intervene at the first sign of a disruption. Many businesses have boarded up their storefronts in preparation.

Updated 1 p.m.

Law enforcement have not said why, but a young man was obviously arrested and hauled away in a Bedford County Sheriff’s Department vehicle. He was standing on the white nationalist side of the street but it’s unclear whether he was affiliated with them.

Updated 12:30 p.m.

We’re now trying to get a handle on the numbers. It’s always difficult to count protesters, but more so here because many people are still waiting to get inside the official protest site.

But it looks to our folks on the ground like roughly 200 white nationalists and perhaps twice that many counter protesters on the other side of the street. Here are some aerial photos from the NewsChannel5 helicopter taken a little before noon.

Updated 11:30 a.m.

It’s still slow going getting into the Shelbyville protest site itself, with many people still waiting in line because of security.

So here’s a little bit about the groups who are showing up.

The black crosses on white backgrounds are likely symbols for the League of the South, which
advocates secession from the United States. The group led the organization of the back-to-back rallies in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro. They did tell their members to “obey authorities” and “be honorable in all your dealings”
in a release ahead of the weekend.

The Traditionalist Workers Party has shown up in force, with some getting through security carrying shields and wearing helmets — both of which were banned.

The organization advocates for a racially pure country. In recruiting sympathizers to Shelbyville, the organization
cited the recent church shooting in Antioch where a Sudan-born man is accused of killing a woman and shooting several others. Party leaders say the media has a double-standard, focusing more on events when a white person is the perpetrator.

“They exploit their monopoly to make it appear like minorities are under constant threat of violent attack by Whites when the statistical reality is exactly the opposite,” writes Matt Parrott
on the TradWorker website.

Parrott goes on to say that Shelbyville is an opportunity to “escalate our own narrative” about the threat of refugees and highlight the media’s lack of reporting “anti-white violence.”

Updated 11:00 a.m.

WPLN’s Chas Sisk reports it appears police are not strictly enforcing the banned items for the Shelbyville protest site.

Protesters are also beginning to clearly state the purpose of today’s rally. One leader says they wanted to make clear that Charlottesville did not kill their movement.

Updated 10:45 a.m.

As White Lives Matter protesters begin arriving, they’re beginning to make their statements. One group, marching with shields and helmets (which will not be allowed inside the official protest site) chanted “closed borders, white nation, now we start the deportation.”

Chas Sisk has some video of the white nationalist preparing to enter the protest site.

One group that is not showing up today is Black Lives Matter. The organization’s Nashville chapter sent out a press release late Friday saying their presence would distract from their fight against everyday racism.


“Gatherings like what will occur in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro are used as scapegoats for institutions and white America at large; it becomes a chance to point fingers at the obvious racists. In reality, it is both the practice of overt and covert racism that makes these violent and hateful rallies of klansmen and neo-nazis possible. It is white America who invited them in and it is white America who has the responsibility to see them out.”

Updated: 10:15 a.m.

White Lives Matter protesters are beginning to arrive in Shelbyville. Chas Sisk talked to some who drove up from Alabama.

One man is
playing bagpipes as people arrive. There are some early conflicts with law enforcement about what can be taken inside the protest site, like a man draped in a Confederate flag who wanted to keep his cane.

While protestors and counter protestors are showing up with shields and masks, police in both Shelbyville and Murfreesboro have been explicit that those items are banned from the rally sites.

Updated: 9:15 a.m.

Security is tight.

As of 9 a.m., dozens of police in riot gear are controlling the rally site in Shelbyville. They include state troopers and agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

“Over the weekened, TBI presence will be visible as a show of force,” director Mark Gwynn
tweeted, citing violence at similar rallies.

A police helicopter is flying overhead and an armored vehicle is on the ground.

Police are trying to keep protesters and counter protesters separated to reduce any chance of repeating the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia. They’ve also banned a long list of items, well beyond firearms. Helmets are a no-go. Even selfie sticks are out. Here’s
our story from yesterday.

Concern is so high that police snipers are stationed on a few buildings. Julieta Martinelli took a picture of some.

Protestors are just now beginning to arrive, with a scheduled start time of 11 a.m.

Everyone is being forced through checkpoints to pass through metal detectors or be searched by police.

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