She took on Neo Nazis and hate groups. Nashville Council Member Zulfat Suara is a boss

Zulfat Suara knows what it feels like to be a target of hatred and bigotry, but she has maintained her discipline as a devotee of nonviolence even in the face of hate groups.

• David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee.

There’s something poetic about a Black Muslim woman wearing traditional Nigerian garb taking on hate-spewing white supremacist groups at city hall.

A dozen men who formed part of an organization called Whites Against Replacement came to disrupt Tuesday’s Metro Council meeting, intending to spread their bile during the public comment period.

At-Large Council Member Zulfat Suara was not having it.

“This council and Nashville Government condemn all forms of hate, and that when you come for one of us, you are coming for all of us, and we continue to stand together as Nashville,” said Suara, who was leading the meeting at that time as council president pro tempore Tuesday.

Right on.

The public was cleared from the council chambers, and while normally I would balk at this decision, there was an intended incitement to violence, which is not protected under the First Amendment.

A photo shared on social media shows District 30 Council Member Sandra Sepúlveda, the first Latina on the body, being held back by colleague District 25 Council Member Jeff Preptit, who is the son of Haitian immigrants, angrily confronting these men who loathe their very existence.

Vigil for James Lawson and John Lewis added urgency

Suara reminded the public about the lessons of the late Rev. James Lawson and his pupil, the late Congressman John Lewis of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, who employed non-violence to confront oppression and hate and avoided giving unneeded attention to groups like these.

They confronted elected officials and desegrated lunch counters. Lewis was arrested multiple times and Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Today, both Lewis and Lawson are lionized with streets and institutions, including a high school and an institute at Vanderbilt, bearing their names.

Since the start of the year, masked Neo Nazi and hate groups have come three times to Nashville to march with flags, shields and slogans denouncing Jews and immigrants among other marginalized groups.

Freedom of speech is protected.We can still shame the neo-Nazis marching in Nashville.

White Replacement Theory is a dangerous concept that has led to violence, including the massacre of 23 people by a killer targeting Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019.

On Wednesday, organizers held a vigil honoring Lawson, who died in 2024, and Lewis, who died in 2020, at Public Square in front of Diane Nash Plaza, named for another civil rights hero.

Suara and others repeated the themes of unity and confronting hatred. The hate groups stayed away this time.

Nashville is more diverse than Tennessee and U.S.

Nashville has positioned itself as a city welcoming to visitors, strangers and immigrants, aka New Americans.

A pivotal moment in Nashville’s history was the rejection at the ballot box in 2009 of a measure limited government business to English only.

Nashville has become an international city and is not heterogenous by any means.

Here is the population breakdown, according to the U.S. Census:

• White (non-Hispanic): 53.3%
• Black: 24.6%
• Latino: 14%
• Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 4%
• Another race: 8%
• Two or more races: 7.57%
• Native American: 0.56%
• Households where a language other than English is spoken: 16.75%

White people make up 61% of Tennessee’s population and 59% of the overall U.S. population. By comparison, Nashville is more diverse and demographic data from the NashvilleNext planning document show the city is expected to be majority minority by 2040.

Council member Suara has long embraced pluralism

I first met Council Member Suara when she was a leader of the American Muslim Advisory Council at an event at the Islamic Center of Nashville. This was years prior to her election to the council in 2019.

Tennessee’s Muslim community has faced hateful political rhetoric and desecration and burning of mosques.

Suara went out of her way to be welcoming and has been one of the faces of the area’s Muslim community, leading celebrations for John Lewis and Diane Nash and speaking at rallies including the 2016 vigil at Public Square honoring the nearly 50 victims of the massacre at Pulse, an Orlando gay club. The killer identified as Muslim and she sought to show solidarity with LGBTQ residents.

This year, she worked with District 19 Council Member Jacob Kupin, a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, on a proposed resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and an end to hate and bigotry, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. For now, that measure has been deferred until further notice.

Suara knows what it feels like to be a target of hatred and bigotry, but she has maintained her discipline as a devotee of nonviolence. Nashville is better off for it.

When she confronted hatemongers at Metro Council chambers, she was not just speaking for her community, but for the entire city.

That courage should embolden all of us to denounce hatred and work to build a more peaceful and just Nashville going forward.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or find him on X at @davidplazas.