Tennessee Hate Groups: SPLC Says 38 Active In Volunteer State

More than three dozen groups active across Tennessee meet the Southern Poverty Law Center's criteria to be designated as hate groups. In the wake of the violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., the SPLC is urging Americans to recognize that vitriolic and often violent extremism is sometimes right next door.

The SPLC says nearly 1,000 groups nationwide — ranging from Neo-Nazis to white nationalist to black separatists to anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT groups — meet its definition of hate groups and 38 of those are active in Tennessee, from Memphis to Mountain City.

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Here's a list of the groups so designated by the SPLC:

• Council of Conservative Citizens, Franklin, white nationalist
• Southern National Congress, statewide, neo-Confederate
• Soldiers of Odin, statewide, anti-Muslim
• White Lives Matter — Tennessee, statewide, white nationalist
• Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, statewide, neo-Nazi
• National Socialist Movement, statewide, neo-Nazi
• Aryan Renaissance Society, statewide, neo-Nazi
• Aryan Strikeforce, statewide, racist skinhead
• Crew 38, statewide, racist skinhead
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Murfreesboro
• Confederate Hammerskins, Nashville, racist skinhead
• The Daily Stormer, Nashville, neo-Nazi
• American Constitution Center, Nashville, anti-Muslim
• Citizen Warrior, Nashville, anti-Muslim
• Militant Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Gladeville
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Hendersonville
• Lincoln County Citizen Action Network, Fayetteville, anti-Muslim
• United Klans of America, McMinnville
• Mary Noel Kershaw Foundation, Lobelville, neo-Confederate
• League of the South, Lobelville, neo-Confederate
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Lexington
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Hixson
• Nation of Islam, Chattanooga
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Knoxville
• ACT for America, Knoxville, anti-Muslim
• Israel United for Christ, Memphis, black separatist
• Nation of Islam, Memphis
• ACT for America, Memphis, anti-Muslim
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Memphis
• The Political Cesspool, Bartlett
• American Eagle Party, Gatlinburg
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Church Hill
• Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Erwin
• Sacred Truth Publishing & Ministries, Mountain City, Christian Identity
• National Alliance, Laurel Bloomery, neo-Nazi

The SPLC's Hate Map is searchable by hate group and state.

In Nashville, demonstrators gathered Monday to urge the removal of the bust of slave trader, early Klan leader and Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol, a goal they share with the state's Republican governor, Bill Haslam. In Franklin and elsewhere, people came together to protest the violence in Charlottesville and pay tribute to Heather Heyer, the woman killed when a vehicle plowed into a crowd of anti-racist protesters. Two Virginia state troopers were also killed in a helicopter crash near the site of the "Unite the Right" demonstration in Charlottesville.

Main image: In this April 23, 2016 photo, members of the Ku Klux Klan participate in cross and swastika burnings after a "white pride" rally in Georgia. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)