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Values in Society
Research Essay

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Hate Groups in Tennessee
Is the Deep South still racist? Have skinheads and hooded Klansmen come and gone? Is
their time over? Is racism a thing of the past? Throughout this paper, I will expose the social
injustice of hate groups and racism operating in Tennessee. This paper will touch on the motives,
intentions, and actions of those who hate. Then, I will end by proposing solutions from an ethical
framework to the hate that still lives and desperately needs to end.
Reality of the Situation
Though many may think racism is a thing of the past, they are terribly wrong. I have
chosen to look at the traditional southern state of Tennessee to investigate if racism is a cause for
concern. To the demise of unrealistic hopefulness, there is definitely a system of hate rooted in
Tennessee. From the Southern Poverty Law Center hate map research, we find that the United
States (as of 3/12/16) has 892 active hate groups (see image above). Of these, 41 are in the state
of Tennessee. These 41 hate groups equal to about 4.6% of all hate groups in the United States.
Of the 41 hate groups in Tennessee, 37 are strictly against minorities and people of color. These
groups are made up of seven White Nationalist groups, five Racist Skinhead groups, two NeoNazis groups, three Neo-Confederate, 16 Ku Klux Klan groups, one General Hate (Tea Party
Nation) group, and three Anti-Muslim groups. You can see in the image below where these
groups are based in the state of Tennessee. Behind these numbers are people that are acting on
hatred they feel for someone else. The notorious racist David Duke is alive and well in his cause
of promoting white supremacy. David Duke is perhaps the most well-known figure of American
racism. He is a seasoned Klan leader and worldwide spokesman for Holocaust denial (SPLC
David Duke). Duke founded the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan in 1974. In 1979, he ran for a seat
in the Louisiana State Senate and won 9,897 votes. He eventually beat his opponent John Treen

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with 33% of the votes. Despite attempts to tone down his racism for political favor, Duke went
so far in his racism as to block a highway during an anti-integration march in Georgia in 1987.
After his activities, he was fined and jailed. Duke went on to open Klan membership to women,
Catholics, and adolescents, resulting in racism becoming further normalized and expanded.
Racists like Duke are not on the hinge of society somewhere, with no effect on others like living
in a sealed vacuum. Rather, Duke continues in his activities to shape civic life by so recently as
2010 running for President. Apparently he was urged by thousands of Tea Party members to run
(SPLC David Duke). One of his proposed programs would have been to end affirmative action.
Dukes influence in the South included giving speeches at racist gatherings in Tennessee from
2011-2013. The history of the Klan that Duke worked to revamp was intended to intimidate
Blacks in the South and to prevent them from reveling in their civil rights (Ku Klux Klan).
Names like Imperial Wizard within the ranks of the Klan added charisma that might attract
more members. The Klan was responsible for rapes, lynchings, and trends of violence against
blacks. 1925 was the year that marked a march in Washington where the Klan had about four
million members, demonstrating incredible power. By the time of the civil rights movement, the
Klan was responsible for bombings, murders, and other acts of violence that spread terror
throughout the South. Due to conflicts, legal issues, and numerous splits within the Klan, the
1970s saw a great reduction in members. Now, there are an estimated 5,000-8,000 members of
the Klan. Now that a foundation has been laid of hate groups in the United States, Tennessee,
history of David Duke, and the Klan, we can see more of what the reality of the situation is. Just
this year, a Congressional candidate in Tennessee conspired to kill many Muslims (Intelligence
Report 2016). A summit was held in a tax-funded state park in Tennessee where high-ranking
Klan members, Neo-nazis, and other white supremacists met in Norris Dam State Park in Lake

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City, TN. They had access to rented facilities on November 8th, 2014 (Klanbly Friendly'). If this
is not evidence enough of the power and activity of racism, one can look at where Tennessee
falls on a map showing racism throughout the United States. On the map, colors represent

varying degrees of racism in states from research collected by PLUS ONE, a peer-reviewed
scientific journal. The findings were created measuring racism in proportion to Google searches
that contained the n-word throughout 196 designated market areas (DMAs) (Chae, Clouston, et
al.). The result of the study showed the concentration of racism in states by colors. The diagonal
pattern demonstrates there is no data, green means racism is below mean, yellow means below
mean to mean, orange means mean to above mean, and red means above mean. As you can see,
Tennessee can be found in the sea of yellow, orange, and red (image below).

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Motives/Intentions
Now that its clear that racism is alive and well in the South, it is important to investigate
the motivations and intentions of those dedicated to its longevity. You may be wondering, why
do people hate? What motivates their racism? I think the best way to learn the answers to such
questions is from former racists themselves. Life After Hate is an organization devoted to helping
racists out of their ways. It is made up of core leaders who have abandoned their racist past and
who expose truths about the deeper reasoning and logic behind racism. Christian Picciolini, the
co-founder and board chair of Life After Hate, makes the point that, Happy people dont plant
bombs, and happy people dont behead people, and happy people dont paint swastikas on
synagogues. Picciolini elaborates,

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Disenfranchised, lonely, self-loathing people do that. There is something missing from their life,
something that they didnt get, whether it was as a child or maybe they were abused or maybe
they came from a broken home or something was missing. Even for me, who came from a
relatively normal household, there was something missing (Life After Hate).

Picciolini expresses an important point; that radical white supremacy is not the result of a
healthy, functional family environment. Instead, racism occurs because a child did not properly
have their needs met. Antony McAleer, the president and executive director of Life After Hate,
points out that the research is clear in issuing the number one reason for joining an extremist
group is childhood trauma. It is critical to understand this because if children are angry and grow
up not knowing how to deal with it, they are more susceptible to joining an extremist group. As
McAleer recollects his driving force in becoming a skinhead, he shares that anger he never dealt
with came to express itself in violence. His option to justify rage became projected in a radical
ideology as a skinhead. It is clear to see that unhealthy and abusive families, unresolved anger,
and lies that are told and internalized can result in people joining radical groups like ones that
promote racist ideologies. Unfortunately, these ways of thinking dont end there and often result
in violence and intimidation.
Actions/Consequences
The Intelligence Report of 2015 created by the Southern Poverty Law Center found
that racist billboards are on the rise in southern states. A white supremacist group has placed
billboards throughout the South bearing the hashtag #Secede. An anonymous member
volunteered to match up to $10,000 in donations toward the neo-secessionist groups general
billboard fund (More Racist Billboards). These billboards signal a message to people of color:
stay out! This creates the stress and pain of feeling unwanted, unwelcome, and second-class. As

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previously written, notorious racists like David Duke are organizing to gain mobility. In nearby
Arkansas, Thomas Robb preaches as a Christian Identity pastor, spreading white supremacist
ideology. As head of the KKKK, he hosted a weeklong camp that was meant to train soldiers
to become involved in the struggle for racial redemption (Thomas Robb). Those who taught
this camp in the Ozark Mountains were white supremacists Paul Fromm and neo-Nazi Billy
Roper. The inferred result of these trainings were that participants became more radicalized and
grounded in their racist ideologies. Racist ideologies do not end just at lifelong ways of thinking
or propensity to violence, they also greatly affect those who are victims of the racist acts. We
must remember that racist ideology was a large catalyst for World War II. The world saw and
remembers Adolf Hitlers Nazi party acting on mass domination by the violent, brutal, and
ruthless murder of those who did not fit into the Aryan race. The racial ideology saw nonAryans as mud races and mongrels (Real Truth). This view of racial impurity led to the acts
of violence we have come to call, the Holocaust. Surely, this was one of the clearest examples of
how far racist ideology can go when it is acted on untamed and exacerbated by followers. It led
to mass murders and attempts at genocide and ethnic cleansing. Now, we thankfully do not see
mass attempts of murder in the United States that is based out of racist ideology. Though we do
not see such excessive violence be it due to countering forces of police and law enforcement,
people encouraging rational judgment, or other forms of resistance hate-filled people prone to
racial violence encounter, we do see lots of isolated incidents that promote a racial hierarchy.
These incidents of violence and intimidation are perpetuated in what is known as sundown
towns. Though the traditional South did not have sundown towns due to their chosen dependence
on black workers, things changed after segregation was deemed illegal. At first, the South had a
role in defining racism that was then used to justify slavery (Loewen 70). Racism became an

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embedded and repetitively reinforced ideology through speech, propaganda, law, and any other
means necessary. Though the South did not originally prevent blacks from being in certain
neighborhoods, they certainly perpetuated racism through exploiting blacks. The original
sundown law was that slaves must be inside by dusk. To be out after this time, slaves needed
passes from their owners. Once segregation became illegal, whites using lynchings as a way to
keep black people down. Other place in the United States used lynching to keep people out from
their sundown towns. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, things took a turn for the
worst. Whites began to expel Blacks from
almost the entire Cumberland Plateau, a huge area extending from the Ohio River near
Huntington, West Virginia, southwest through Corbin, Kentucky, crossing into Tennessee, where
it marks the division between east and middle Tennessee, and finally ending in northern Alabama.
In most parts of the plateau throughout most of the twentieth century, when night came to the
Cumberlands, African Americans had better be absent (Loewen 72).

Thus, sundown towns were born throughout Tennessee and the southern states. Now, Blacks
would have a new type of terror effecting them in the South. The informal restrictions on black
lives would continue to be reinforced by violence or intimidation. For example, Rockcastle, TN
had no black people in its 14,743 people in the 1990 census. To see such a stark absence of
Blacks in a mid-sized city implies there may have been racial covenants to keep people out.
Esther Sanderson, historian of Scott County, TN, cleared up the reason for such an observation:
There was a big sign on the road at the Kentucky state line and at the entrance at Morgan
County [the next county south]: Nigger, dont let the sun set on your head (Loewen 72).
Sanderson went on to say that Blacks barely passed through the town. If they did, it was their
intent to get through as quick as possible out of fear of violence. The effects of physical violence
on black lives goes without explanation. However, there is consequential effects on black lives

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that results in more discrete or discriminatory racism. The PLOS ONE study cited earlier also
revealed that the racism Blacks experience in the United States contributes to accelerated
declines in health and generates racial disparities (Chae, Clouston, et al.). The evidence shows
that environmental stressors and psychosocial challenges that Blacks experience results in health
declines. The racial experiences of discrimination through residential segregation such as in
sundown towns, results in worsening conditions for predominantly black communities. This
typically means there are less health-promoting resources in these communities and health
behaviors are negatively shaped to favor convenience and affordability. The discrimination black
people experience in employment also causes obvious imbalances to whites, with less income
and greater financial stresses. These challenges have been connected with negative mental and
physical results. All goes to show that racism is powerfully effective in promoting premature
death and negative health overall (Chae, Clouston, et al.).
Solutions
Aristotle spoke on what justice means and what the right thing to do is. Aristotle did not
believe justice could be spoken of without first deciding on what values were right and what
people deserved. When proposing solutions to something as insurmountable as racism, thinking
of values means considering what do the racists and victims of racism deserve? All people
deserve the right to live their life without fear, to get help and healing when they desire it, and to
have equal opportunities. When it comes to the person of color, those statements of justice
clearly are not lived out in the daily. Instead, we see the injustice of these realities not being
realized. Therefore, through Aristotelian thinking, I propose solutions be enacted to uproot some
of the racism we see in the United States today. To do this, I propose people of color are greatly

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protected and taken seriously when they are victims of hate crimes. Sundown towns needs to be
a thing of the past so legislation needs to be passed promoting residential integration and equal
opportunities for people of color across all measures. I propose greater support of the exit
programs like Life After Hate to be publicized and encouraged in the public and private sphere.
Through these groups, racists can come to believe their hatred can be a think of the past. Other
solutions to combat white supremacy are to use ex-racists to go into communities on educational
campaigns and teach the truth of the human race. They could tell that we all evolved from one
original parent couple and that race itself is a social construct and not biologically rooted.
Though there may be strong resistance to these teachings, they could be valued by an offered
incentive. The government should start to clearly identify communities and states saturated by
racism, and start a campaign to support and host programs for racists to gain understanding to
become deradicalized. There could also be incentives given which are valued by the community
in order to promote the common good. Truthfully, the success of dismantling racism lies with the
racist. Is it up to them to change their lives, to see the cracks in their ideology, to change their
social group, their activities, and their entire ways of life. Though others can come in to reinforce
ethical values of promoting the common good, it is up to that person to choose what they will do
with their life. Until ideologies get better, racism can never get better, and once the heart
becomes softer, ideologies can change. The transformation of the human heart is beyond what
any single person can do. Only that individual can give the keys to let themselves be opened and
changed. We reach a limit when it comes to the human heart, a point where all we can do is say,
God, this is in Your hands.
Reference List

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1. Hate-map. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
2. More Racist Billboards Popping in Southern States. https://www.splcenter.org/fightinghate/intelligence-report/2015/more-racist-billboards-popping-southern-states
3. Intelligence Report 2015. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligencereport/2015/record-5
4. Real Truth. https://realtruth.org/articles/100210-003-analysis.html
5. Loewen, James. Sundown Towns.
6. Ku Klux Klan. Extremist Files. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremistfiles/ideology/ku-klux-klan
7. Living Dangerously. Intelligence Report. https://www.splcenter.org/fightinghate/intelligence-report/2016/editorial-year-living-dangerously
8. Life After Hate. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2016/life-afterhate
9. Thomas Robb. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/thomasrobb
10. Klanbly Friendly' Tennessee: State Becomes Hate Tourist Mecca. By James L. Smith, Jr.
December 03, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2016 from
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/12/03/klanbly-friendly-tennessee-state-becomes-hatetourist-mecca

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11. Association between an Internet-Based Measure of Area Racism and Black Mortality.
David H. Chae , Sean Clouston , Mark L. Hatzenbuehler , Michael R. Kramer , Hannah L. F.
Cooper , Sacoby M. Wilson , Seth I. Stephens-Davidowitz , Robert S. Gold , Bruce G. Link.
Published: April 24, 2015DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122963.