Caravan to Montgomery Bell State Park for American Renaissance Protest
The General Plan (Subject to Your Ideas)After the final session at 4 p.m. on Saturday (specifically about American Renaissance and other Tennessee hate groups), a caravan of anti-racist protesters will gather protest signs and leave the Unconference to head to Montgomery Bell State Park (MBSP) in Dickson, Tennessee. It's about a 40 minute drive. (Click here for directions!). We will protest the continued use of the Park Inn & Conference Center by the white supremacist hate group American Renaissance (AmRen), as identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center. AmRen has been using the Park for their annual conference since 2012. This racist event draws participants from across the country and the around the globe.
You are encouraged to join the caravan! Let's make sure these racist groups know that their presence in our state will be met with creative, sustained, & nonviolent resistance. Please register and indicate if you will participate in this direct action so we can ensure enough space for riders. If you need assistance in any way to attend or be a caravan driver, please let us know, we are prepared to assist you. Once we arrive at the Park, we will park in a lot beside the protest area and directly in front of the Park Inn. We will protest for a couple hours, using our chants, songs, signs, and creative energy to counter AmRen's hateful speech with our positive racial justice and diversity message. #StandSpeakAct & Solidarity with Park Workers Silence is Consent. We will not be silent. We do not consent to our State Parks being used as training camps for overtly racist organizations. We should not have to financially support their racist activities in a publicly funded space. Our neighbors and friends ought not have to worry that they will encounter racist hate groups when visiting our state parks. Employees who are people of color ought not have to be bused in and out of the park, their place of employment, for their own safety. It is unacceptable that any employee, especially people of color, be subjected to this type of hostile work environment. We stand in solidarity with MBSP employees who feel unable to come forward, to complain and raise concerns, because they are concerned about losing their jobs. We understand that concern. We want to say to employees: you are not alone. Who Is Responsible for (Anti-) Racism? (We are.) We especially call on white anti-racists to join the protests. TARN uses a bystander intervention model of protest. TARN believes white people bear a great responsibility to address all forms of racism. Anti-racist white people must stand up to racists who abuse our public spaces by creating environments where people of color, LGBTQIA communities, and other marginalized people are not welcome. |
Feel unsure about participating?TARN and other groups have held protests at Mongtomery Bell State Park every year that AmRen has been in Tennessee and have never had any violence at the protest actions. Our safety guidelines are meant as suggestions.
Our Goals
Our goal is to disturb AmRen's image of Tennessee as welcoming to their ideals, to disrupt their rural Tennessee recruiting processes, and to create an environment that is so uninviting to their participants that they will leave and not return. Every year they come to Tennessee, we will respond with counter actions and messaging that reveals the diversity of Tennessee, and the pro equality ideals of everyday Tennesseans. What we want from the Tennessee State Parks It is the responsibility of the Tennessee State Parks System to maintain an environment that is welcoming to all Tennesseans at all times. To date, Tennessee State Parks have been remarkably uncooperative and uninterested in establishing and maintaining a dialogue with people concerned about the growing presence of hate groups in our State Parks. AmRen is not the only such organization finding refuge in Tennessee Parks. There are approximately 30 active hate groups operating in Tennessee today. To learn more about hate groups in Tennessee please attend the 3 pm Saturday session. TARN supports nonviolent protest and actions that foster a culture of respect. |
What is AmRen and what are they doing in Tennessee?
American Renaissance (AmRen) first came to Montgomery Bell State Park near Dickson, Tennessee in March 2012. The following month the Mayor of Dickson signed a proclamation naming April Confederate History and Heritage Month in Dickson. Since then, AmRen's annual white supremacist conference comes to MBSP every April.
Founded by Jared Taylor in 1990, the New Century Foundation is a self-styled think tank that promotes pseudo-scientific studies and research that purport to show the inferiority of blacks to whites — although in hifalutin language that avoids open racial slurs and attempts to portray itself as serious scholarship. It is best known for its 'American Renaissance newsletter / magazine and website, which regularly feature proponents of eugenics and blatant anti-black racists.
Their national conference is meant to provide an open space for "intellectuals", neo-nazis, and other racists to come together, network, and make plans for the future. The conference functions as a training ground for racists to learn how to grow and sustain their organizations.
For the fourth year in a row, Montgomery Bell State Park Inn, in nearby Dickson, Tennessee, will be the site of the their racist Conference, April 17-19, 2015. Tennessee State Parks are one of the few places they can go after intense organizing and activism over the past years shut them out of venues in the Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC area.
AmRen's conference organizers have reportedly booked all the cabins and rooms at the Inn, which means only those associated with the racist AmRen conference are able to rent rooms and cabins and enjoy these publicly subsidized amenities our State Park offers. The general public cannot at this time obtain reservations for rooms or cabins.
Learn More about AmRen here.
Their national conference is meant to provide an open space for "intellectuals", neo-nazis, and other racists to come together, network, and make plans for the future. The conference functions as a training ground for racists to learn how to grow and sustain their organizations.
For the fourth year in a row, Montgomery Bell State Park Inn, in nearby Dickson, Tennessee, will be the site of the their racist Conference, April 17-19, 2015. Tennessee State Parks are one of the few places they can go after intense organizing and activism over the past years shut them out of venues in the Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC area.
AmRen's conference organizers have reportedly booked all the cabins and rooms at the Inn, which means only those associated with the racist AmRen conference are able to rent rooms and cabins and enjoy these publicly subsidized amenities our State Park offers. The general public cannot at this time obtain reservations for rooms or cabins.
Learn More about AmRen here.