Multiple hate groups have demonstrated in Nashville this year, extremism expert examines why

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — For the second time in July and the third time in 2024, a white supremacy group came to Nashville on Sunday to spread their message.

On Sunday, a group of apparent neo-Nazi protesters carried flags bearing swastikas at Broadway and 3rd Avenue.

The people involved in the Sunday demonstration were wearing shirts reading “whites against replacement” and could be heard spreading anti-semitic rhetoric.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the ‘Great Replacement’ theory blames the Jewish people for non-white immigration into the United States.

This came eight days after more than 100 people, believed to be part of Patriot Front, marched through the streets of downtown Nashville and a few months after another group carrying Nazi flags marched through downtown.

“It seems likely that we are unfortunately creating some kind of public image of Nashville as potentially welcoming to these ideologies,” said Nashville-based extremism expert, Amy Cooter . “It is perhaps also true that we will continue to see activity like this moving forward.”

Without any statements from law enforcement or these groups regarding the motivations behind the protests, Cooter said it’s hard to know exactly why these demonstrations continue to happen in Nashville.

However, she does have some theories given recent trends and research. Cooter believes Nashville’s politics is one reason these groups are coming to Music City.

“It’s long been true that we sometimes see group activity like this in places where the group sees it almost as a political or cultural battleground…that could very well be true with Nashville being a pretty blue city in an otherwise red state,” Cooter said.

She also hypothesized these groups might see Nashville as a safe place to spread their message without meaningful pushback.

“We did see our mayor, we did see our governor come out with statements after the last batch of pop-up terrorism in Nashville from ‘Patriots Front,’ but in terms of how they interpret that…they don’t see that as a meaningful kind of consequences,” she explained.

However, Cooter said despite the end result looking the same, these groups may have different reasons for publicly waving these flags and spreading these messages. “People can have different motivations for the same kind of tactics or behaviors that we end up seeing.”

In response to these hate groups presence in Nashville, state Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) created a campaign called “Nashville Against Nazis.”

Behn said the goal of the campaign is to educate elected officials and community members on the dangers of white supremacist activity and come up with clear steps on how to address the topic.

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“This will be a reoccurring instance and I think it’ll continue to get more and more violent if you are familiar with these groups’ track records,” Behn warned.

Anti-semitic activity has been going up not only in Tennessee but across the United States, according to the ADL .

On Monday, it happened again. Just before 6 p.m., flags depicting swastikas were seen flying over Interstate 65. New video depicted about a dozen people wearing “Pro-White” t-shirts and pointing at cars passing by.

That marked the third time in July that white supremacist groups were seen in the city and the fourth time in 2024.

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