NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Hate groups have turned their attention to Tennessee, dialing up their rhetoric against African-Americans, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community in ways that watchdogs find alarming.
Data compiled by those watchdogs suggest that neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups have targeted the Volunteer State with racist flyers at an alarming rate in the past year, signaling a more brazen and calculated focus on the state.
"It does show us that, for whatever reason, they see Tennessee as a battleground," said Jeff Tischauser, a senior researcher who tracks hate for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
NewsChannel 5's focus on the rise of hate began last fall with Gabrielle Hanson's unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Franklin, Tennessee — a campaign in which white supremacists were a visible presence in support of Hanson's candidacy.
Back in February, a neo-Nazi group known as the Blood Tribe made a scene with its parade through downtown Nashville, carrying swastika flags and chanting.
"De-por-ta-tion! De-por-ta-tion!"
Their hateful words echoed among the downtown's high-rise buildings.
The group later produced a propaganda video, documenting its rally on the steps of the Tennessee state Capitol and march through the heart of Nashville's entertainment district.
In the video, the hate group echoes familiar anti-immigration views.
"They hate white men," a group leader chants.
His followers respond in rhythm, "Deport every Mexican."
That was followed by a Nazi salute.
"Seig! Heil!"
It followed a similar show of force back in November by members of the white-supremacist Tennessee Active Club, the same group that interjected itself last fall into Gabrielle Hanson's campaign.
That same month, another anti-Semitic group — the so-called National Justice Party — took to Nashville's streets with its own anti-LGBTQ message.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates also caught up with a local activist who recently discovered KKK flyers scattered across the community. Larry Turnley was preparing for a roadside clean-up project in historically Black North Nashville when he first spotted a KKK flyer.
"It had an image of what would appear to be a Black man with a White woman hugging her and she had a black eye," Turnley recalled.
Another flyer depicted a sub-human character with the message: "The struggle for gay rights drags on. Stand against this sinful sickness today."
Turnley was showing NewsChannel 5 Investigates where he found the flyers when one spotted another lying in the grass.
"Look at there!" the activist exclaimed.
We noted, "Another one!"
"Another one."
This one, we soon discovered, carried a message printed in both Spanish and English that "all illegals must go."
NewsChannel 5 asked Turnley, "Do you feel violated?"
"Yes, because this is holy ground," he answered. "This is holy ground with the history here in this community. It's like someone come and they put their feet on your coffee table or they dust their shoes off on your living room floor."
Down the road in Columbia, Tennessee — inside the Maury County Courthouse where an 18-year-old Black man was lynched from the second-story balcony nearly a century ago — Daniel Walls was just sentenced to three years in jail for civil rights intimidation.
Last year, Walls — the grand wizard of the Old Glory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — plastered area Black churches with his own racist flyers.
"You have been paid another social visit by the Old Glory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan," the flyer read.
"We have a dark history here and, because of you, a bright future!"
SPLC says the number of racist flyers shot up from a reported 21 in 2018 to a whopping 268 last year.
And Tennessee had the fifth largest number of racist flyer incidents last year, just behind Viriginia, Texas, New York and California.
"So there's something going on in Tennessee that gives these groups hope, which is again a very big concern for us at the SPLC," Jeff Tischauser said.
In the case of Gabrielle Hanson, the flyers were clearly designed to intiimidate people that the white supremacists perceived to be standing in their candidate's way.
"Having your face put up on a flyer around Franklin and saying you are part of Antifa, that hasn't happened. I've been doing this work for about 10 years. I haven't seen it," Tischauser added.
These days groups like the Blood Tribe wrap themselves in the the anti-immigrant message of Donald Trump — perhaps hoping the time is right for Americans to embrace their own brand of hate.
In the propaganda video from the Nashville march, Trump can be heard talking about immigrants: "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."
And in fall 2022, prominent Tennessee Republicans participated in a rally against gender care for children that drew a broad cross-section of religious conservatives, along with more virulent anti-LGBTQ protesters and far-right Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group known for its violent clashes with its enemies.
"They look at the demographics here, they look at the policy makers here and they see that they might have 'an in' in trying to push them and maybe Tennesseans in general to become more extreme," Tischauser said.
Larry Turnley agreed.
"If you just look at the rhetoric that's being spewed from up there at the state Capitol — and not only the rhetoric, I would say the laws and the policies that's being legislated."
We noted, "It's not a huge jump in your mind?"
"No, not at all."
Turnley said it's time for Tennessee's leaders to take a stand.
And just like the Blood Tribe's own video shows, what may be required is the courage of people who, like a young man on this day, chose to confront hate, rather than remaining silent.
He pleaded with a member of the Blood Tribe, "I mean, you guys know what you guys are doing. Right? Like, you have a heart in there, don't you?"
Jeff Tischauser said these incidents illustrate why the Southern Poverty Law Center is concerned about the upcoming election season with groups that talk a lot about potential violence who may even be preparing for it.
Experts say the answer is to recognize the rise of hate and to call it out, especially political language of any stripe that dehumanizes people — whether it's African-Americans, immigrants or members of the LGBTQ community.
Related videos, stories: