The number of hate groups operating in the Memphis area was cut in half over the last two years, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Each year, the Montgomery, Alabama-based SPLC issues its Year In Hate and Extremism report, which details hate groups and anti-government extremist groups operating across the U.S. This year’s report found a total of 1,225 active groups (in both categories combined) in the U.S., up slightly from the 1,221 groups active in 2021.
The number of hate groups fell for the fourth year in a row in 2022. A record number of such groups (1,020) was recorded in 2018. This fell to 733 in 2021 and to 523 in the 2022 report. However, the number of anti-government groups rose. The number of such groups totaled 566 in 2020, fell to 488 in 2021, but rose steeply to 702 in the 2022 report.
”This report clearly shows the impact of these groups and hard-right figures in the mainstream and on Main Street, demonstrating the growing harm and threat they pose to individuals, communities and democracy itself,” reads the report.
The SPLC researchers noted that hate groups, “extremist activists,” and the Republican Party had become “increasingly intertwined since Donald Trump’s presidency began.”
“Republican politicians now mingle freely with members of the organized white nationalist movement and employ their rhetoric more freely than at any other time in recent American history,” reads the report, citing Trump’s dinner with anti-semitic rapper Ye and a GOP gala in New York that included a Pizzagate theorist and many white nationalists.
In Memphis, four groups made the SPLC’s annual report. That’s down from the eight groups reported in 2020.
Gone from the report this year four are Black nationalist groups — Great Millstone, Israel United in Christ, Nation of Islam, and the New Black Panther Party for Islam. The SPLC said “Black nationalists typically oppose integration and racial intermarriage, and they want separate institutions — or even a separate nation — for blacks.” The groups are also ”anti-white and antisemitic,” the group said. No reason was given as to why these groups were not listed in this year’s report.
Also gone from this year’s report is Confederate 901, a seemingly inactive group that surfaced in 2017. Its leaders were opposed to the removal of Confederate statues in Memphis, especially the former Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in what is now Health Sciences Park. The group organized a protest rally in 2018 that brought a rolling convoy of supporters to the roads around Memphis.
However, the group’s last tweet was issued in 2018.
Two new groups have been added to the SPLC’s report on Memphis over the last two years. The Proud Boys and the Shelby County chapter of Moms for Liberty are now active here.
The local Moms for Liberty group says it is “dedicated to the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” Jennifer Martin is listed as the county chapter chair on the national group’s website.
The local Proud Boys group also made the list. The group’s profile rose last year as they counter-protested a pro-choice rally here.
The West Tennessee Proud Boys website shows a photo of the group marching on Beale Street and tells its members to “walk your streets with your head held high.” An obviously fake Memphis address is listed as “Freedom Street, Memphis, TN 38503.” The ZIP Code is for Cookeville, Tennessee.
In its website’s “Beliefs” section, the local Proud Boys say they are “are proud Western Chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” They say they want small government, freedom of speech, closed borders, the right to bear arms, to “venerate the housewife,” and more.
On racism, the Proud Boys site says it ”may be alive, but it is not well” as “progress has been made in overcoming racial prejudice.” With that, they don’t want “anti-racial guilt.” … “Let no man be burdened with shame for the deeds of his ancestors,” reads the site. “Let no people be held accountable for things they never did.”
The site also offers a portal to join the group. Another button, for complaints, takes a visitor to a YouTube video featuring a tune called “The You Are A Cunt Song.”
Two Bartlett radio stations also made the SPLC’s list this year, as they have for years. Blood River Radio believes “genocide is being pursued against white gentile people of the world.” The Political Cesspool hosts have said “we represent a philosophy that is pro-white and are against political centralization.”
Read more about those stations in a previous story here. Read an in-depth look at them, their hosts, and their guests from the SPLC blog here. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued its annual report on hate crimes in the state earlier this year. Read our story on it here.
