Morning Briefing: Tennessee Mayoral Candidate Supported by White Supremacist 'Active Club'

Gabrielle Hanson, a far right candidate for mayor of Franklin, Tennessee, attended a candidate forum with the support of members of a White Supremacist 'active club.'

Oct 04, 2023

A member of the Tennessee Active Club outside a candidates forum in Franklin, Tennessee. (*Image: Phil Williams / WTVF*)

Morning Briefing: Gabrielle Hanson, a far right candidate for mayor of Franklin, Tennessee, attended a candidate forum with the support of members of White Supremacist group which reportedly “escorting Hanson and her husband into the event.” The Members of the Tennessee Active Club, among a growing number of White Supremacist so-called “active clubs,” claimed that they were attending the event “to protect Gabrielle.”

Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group, was apparently responsible for a banner “hung from the Alameda Street pedestrian bridge over I-40” in Nashville, Tennessee. White Supremist propaganda has been distributed by members of Patriot Front throughout the country, however, communities throughout Tennessee have been a particular target of Patriot Front and other White Supremist groups.

A federal appeals court rejected a motion by lawyers representing Operation Save America, a radical anti-abortion group, to end a temporary restraining order which prevents “Operation Save America and people associated with the organization” from coming near a reproductive health care clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Local law enforcement is investigating the vandalism of a “Black Lives Matter sign outside the Metropolitan AME Church near the White House.” The Metropolitan AME Church is the same church that was targeted in 2020 by members of the Proud Boys, the far right violent extremist street gang.

Michael David Fox, an adherent to the QAnon conspiracy theory, has reportedly “entered a plea deal after being charged with a federal criminal complaint of making threats through interstate communications directed at a member of Congress.”

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