Members of one of the most visible white nationalist hate groups spent their weekend vowing to "Reclaim America" in a march through the streets of Nashville.
Bystander video captured throngs of Patriot Front's men disguised in baseball caps, sunglasses and white face coverings, popping out of the backs of several U-Haul moving trucks in the Nissan Stadium parking lot Saturday.
The group assembled and promenaded through downtown, marching to the beat of a drum and waving a banner that read: "Reclaim America," as well as Confederate and American flags, according to the viral clip on X, which has since been viewed nearly 6 million times. Some protesters paraded with circular shields, while chanting "deportation saves the nation" and the Nazi salute "Sieg Heil" – a German phrase that translates to "Hail Victory."
Yes these are White Supremacists who are part of a mainly right-wing group called the Patriot Front, marching in Nashville, Tennessee today.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 6, 2024
No, these are not FEDs or the FBI or the CIA. These are bad people.
Bad people actually do exist. There are horrible people, who are… pic.twitter.com/xeIwAZSziF
Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus condemned the march as an "act of terror."
"This is what we're fighting against in Tennessee," Remus said in a statement on X. "This is what we're fighting against in America. While our Republican leaders sit quietly by, we refuse to let hate-filled racists terrorize our community."
Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones scolded his Republican colleagues "who continue to welcome these hate groups to our state with racist laws and rhetoric" while Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell refused to "platform hate actors."
"Just because someone is exercising their First Amendment rights does not mean we must accept someone shamelessly identifying as a Nazi as just another American," he wrote on X, in part. "And in Nashville we won't."
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Patriot Front is one of the most visible white supremacist groups that justifies "its hate and intolerance under the guise of preserving America's identity as a 'Pan-European nation.'" The group operates within the belief that their "ancestors conquered America and bestowed it to them, and no one else."
