Buckhead City Leader Retweets, Deletes Post By Hate Group: Report

ATLANTA, GA — A tweet shared by a Buckhead cityhood leader sparked criticism from Georgia leaders, as the post was originally sent by a group with ties to white nationalism.

Bill White retweeted, and then deleted, a Twitter post shared by the account VDARE, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The Southern Poverty Law Center said this site is anti-immigration and "regularly publishes articles by prominent white nationalists, race scientists and anti-Semites."

White is the chairman and CEO of the Buckhead Cityhood Committee.

Neighbors for a United Atlanta, state Rep. Josh McLaurin, and incoming Atlanta City Council member Jason Dozier criticized the tweet and pointed out the group's ties to white nationalism.

White said in an Instagram post that he deleted the post once he realized who he had shared it from. He said he shared the tweet because it had linked to an article about crime in Atlanta.

"I retweeted an article which was well written about rise in violent crime," White said on Instagram. "I instead retweeted an entity’s tweet (have no idea who they are) about the article. I realized that the comment made in their tweet was nasty and racist for sure. I deleted the RT, and I tweeted exactly why I did. Tweets all included here. I was going too fast - and I’m sure it won’t be the first or the last time someone on earth does that. @buckheadcityga and I personally denounce any and all comments like the one in that specific tweet. The underlying article is well worth a read The comments that have come over the transom, one of which I have highlighted here, are quite vile. Some people have lost their minds."

Since late this summer, White has become the face of the movement to de-annex Buckhead from Atlanta and forge a new city.

Efforts have gone mostly undeterred as only a portion of the nearly 100,000 Buckhead residents have directly weighed in and most of the legislative heavy lifting to bring cityhood to a 2022 ballot measure has been done by lawmakers from outside the proposed city limits. Direct action from Buckhead voters — those who will actually decide if a new city is to be — won't come into play until Nov. 8, at the last minute.

More on this story is available via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.