The Memphis area had more hate groups than any part of Tennessee last year, according to a new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Memphis and Bartlett were home to eight hate groups last year. Five of these groups were listed as “general hate,” one was listed as neo-Confederate, and two were listed as white nationalist.
Bartlett-based Blood River Radio believes “genocide is being pursued against white gentile people of the world.”
“Blood River Radio is one of the only media outlets in North America with the intelligence, courage, and vision to realize and state openly that the global white race is in the early to middle stage of being exterminated,” reads a quote on the show’s website from Eddie Miller. “We are one of the very few media outlets with the courage and selflessness to swear on the holy altar of god to fight against our genocide. As other media fiddles while the white race burns, Blood River Radio shall fight to the death to defend our people against extermination.”
The Bartlett-based “Political Cesspool” show has been listed in the SPLC’s hate report for years. Show hosts say “we represent a philosophy that is pro-white and are against political centralization.”
“You can trust The Political Cesspool Radio Program to give you the ‘other side of the news’ — to report on events which are vital to your welfare but which would otherwise be hushed up or distorted by the controlled press,” reads the “our mission” section of the show’s website. “We make no attempt to give you ‘both sides.’’’
Six hate groups were active in Memphis last year including Black Nationalist groups Great Millstone, Israel United In Christ, New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and Nation of Islam, as well as the neo-Confederate Confederate 901.
Thirty-four hate groups operated statewide last year, according to the report. These included two Ku Klux Klan groups, Proud Boys, United Skinhead Nation, Dixie Giftshop, Straight Arm Media, and more. Only Nashville compared to Memphis in the concentration of hate groups in Tennessee with four hate groups operating there last year.
The number of hate groups fell nationally in 2020, but the level of hate did not, according to the report.
The agency’s “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2020” report says the number of hate groups in the country fell to 838 last year. That’s down from the 940 groups reported by the SPLC in 2019 and down from a record-high 1,020 groups the law center reported in 2018.
“It is important to understand that the number of hate groups is merely one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in America, and that the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate,” reads the report.
As an example, SPLC polling data found that 29 percent of Americans personally know someone who believes that white people are the superior race. The group also recorded 4,900 incidents of “flyering,” noting that white nationalist groups used the tactic 12 times more than all other groups combined.