What to Know Before Reading/Trigger Warning: This article was written by Kaeillyn Marie who is a scholar, freedom fighter, and socialist from Edenwald Projects, New York City’s largest housing development in the Bronx. Marie currently studies public relations – genders, women, and sexuality. Marie’s article contains topics that touch on racism and acts of violence, such as lynching. The end of this piece will also include links on more information regarding the topics presented in this article.
On Saturday July 6 the Patriot Front, a White supremacist group marched downtown in Nashville, Tennessee. The group was spotted exiting U-Haul trucks with over 100 members participating.Â
Participants held ski masks over their faces, rose banners in proclamation words: “Reclaim America” and blazed Confederate flags while holding shields. The group which originated in Texas, is led by Thomas Ryan Rousseau.
Their agenda states, “Members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front believe that their ancestors conquered America and bestowed it to them, and no one else.” Now, in 2024 groups like Patriot Front present white supremacy in face of Zionist propaganda and Project 2025.
During the Black Nadir (1877-1950), Tennessee was a leading state for lynching black individuals. In 2023, Paul Sherrel—Tennessee State Representative, proposed bringing back lynching as form of punishment. Equal Justice Initiative disclosed that lawmakers were discussing HB1245, a bill which would allow electrocution as an alternative to lethal injection and that would add execution by firing squad. Representative Paul Sherrell (R-Sparta) said, “I was just wondering, could I put an amendment on that that would include hanging by a tree, also.”
The Equal Justice Initiative also concluded during the period (1877-1950) over 236 lynchings were reported in Tennessee. A lynching is a fast-paced execution by a mob that typically ends in a hanging. Almost 5,000 Black individuals were lynched throughout the south during this historical low point of racial violence. Â
Today, racist representatives, Paul Sherrell and Marjorie Taylor Greene, attack the appearance of black women and propose lynching legislation. Both attacks must not be seen as unprecedented, while groups like Patriot Front embody a mockery of racial terror.Â
Far-right militia movements, such as the Patriot Front, share views on the United States government and white supremacy. The militia activities of the 1990s provided a foundation for the formation of Patriot groups. In 2021, a United States capital invasion of private militia members and other right-wing extremists launched an assault on Congress; once again, individuals were spotted waving Confederate flags, in acts similar to the ones on July 6.Â
As we witness the rise of white nationalism in 2024, bigot State Representatives, Zionist propaganda, attacks on BIPOC/poor white workers, and Project 2025 the American people need to gear into reality, America’s true essence. The United States is a settler colonial project fueled by Native genocide and African enslavement. It is necessary to end this article, quoting Minister of Defense and Chairman of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton.Â
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
We, the revolutionaries of today, must protect our brethren and sisters against surreptitiousness. The KKK has active branches throughout the twenty-first century and now, Patriot Front, a predecessor of such group, remains unquestionable.
For More Information and Sources Visit:
See Southern Poverty Law Center for a summary of the “Patriot Front” organization: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/patriot-front
The Nadir of American Race Relation was a historical low point for A.A during the 1870-1950s, learn more: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/nadir.htmÂ
Equal Justice Initiative: Tennesse Lawmaker Lynching Comment sparks outrage: https://eji.org/news/tennessee-lawmakers-lynching-comment-sparks-outrage/
Lynchings are community spectacles by a mob that typically ends in a hanging: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america