White Supremacist Conference Returning To Tennessee State Park

BURNS, TN — Thirty-five miles west of downtown Nashville, Montgomery Bell State Park is full of butterflies and fresh air heavy with history. Its namesake — who also lent his moniker and $20,000 to the well-regarded all-boys school Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville — was a Tennessee iron magnate and furnaces and mining operations dotted the surrounding area. The Cumberland Presbyterian church was founded in what is now the park in 1810.

And every summer since 2012, the park has hosted one of the country's largest white supremacist conferences. The American Renaissance Conference, led by Jared Taylor, founder of the magazine of the same name, promises attendees a chance to "celebrate the shifting political tides and discuss the way forward for White America and the Western World" when it heads to the state park July 28 through July 30. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

American Renaissance and its parent organization, the not-for-profit New Century Foundation, are listed as white nationalist hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. AmRen itself prefers the terms "racialist," "race realist," "Occidentalist" or "Identitarian."

The conference itself has been held since 1994, but after protests and petitions drove it from private hotels, the group settled in at the state park from 2012, as using a state-owned facility affords them First Amendment protections.

According to the conference's website, its sold out its allotment of rooms at the inn at the state park and as Taylor told NewsChannel 5, it may mean a move to a larger venue is in the offing, which might require the risk of trying to hold the event at a private facility once again.

This year's speakers include Peter Brimelow, the editor of anti-immigration web site VDare, named for Virginia Dare, the first white child born in North America; and John Derbyshire, who, in addition to having an uncredited role in Bruce Lee's martial arts classic "Way of the Dragon," was fired from the National Review for a column he penned about the "dangers" African-Americans pose to white people.

Image via State of Tennessee