To: Pat Wright, Park Manager, Bill Haslam, Governor, Tennessee Department of Enivronment and Conservation, Tennessee State Parks, Brock Hill, Deputy Commissioner for Parks and Conservation, Robert Martineau, Commissioner of TDEC, Shari Meghr...

Montgomery Bell Park: Do Not Host the 2014 American Renaissance White Supremacist Conference!

Do not host the 2014 American Renaissance (AmRen) white supremacist conference at Montgomery Bell Park! Hosting this hate group which is composed of nazis and other fascists at Montgomery Bell is not only an irresponsible promotion of racist ideology but is also a serious threat to public health and safety that endangers the people who visit our park and live in our communities. Keep our park safe, stand up for the people, and take immediate action on this issue!

Why is this important?

Montgomery Bell Park in Dickson, Tennessee will be hosting a major annual conference of white supremacists for the third year in a row from April 25-27, 2014. This is the 12th conference of the white supremacist group American Renaissance (AmRen). AmRen is designated a hate group by a number of human rights organizations. The presence of a hate group composed of nazis and other fascists in Montgomery Bell Park is unacceptable and presents a clear and present danger to public health and safety.

What is AmRen?

Amren is a newsletter that publishes pseudo-scientific research which argues that people of color are intellectually and morally inferior to white people. The organization is led by a white supremacist named Jared Taylor. Previous attendees at the conference include Ku Klux Klan members (including former KKK “Grand Wizard” David Duke), neo-Nazis (such as Don Black who runs the neo-Nazi website “stormfront“), holocaust deniers, anti-immigration thugs, and other racist and fascist groups and people who promote racial hatred.

Who is Supposed to be at the Conference This Year?

Some speakers at this conference include:

John Derbyshire an ex-writer for the National Review who was recently fired for a racist rant he published advising white parents to teach their children to “avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally”, “before voting for a black politician scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white”, “do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress”, etc. He currently writes for a white supremacist and anti-immigration website called vdare where he wrote recently that, “White supremacy, in the sense of a society in which key decisions are made by white Europeans, is one of the better arrangements history has come up with.”

Jack Donovan, a homophobe and “Men’s Rights Activist” who openly calls for violent attacks on LGBTQ people and is an advocate for fascism.

Sam Dickson an anti-Semite who is a former lawyer for the Ku Klux Klan and holocaust denier. He is a white nationalist who attacks affirmative action, interracial marriage, gays and lesbians, and immigration.

Andrew Brons who is a British nazi who leads a far-right organization called the “British Democratic Party” that is composed of other fascists and nazis.

Jared Taylor who believes that black people are genetically predisposed to having lower IQs than whites and has stated in an article published on his website that, “Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, western civilization, any kind of civilization, disappears.”

What Can We Do?

Join us Saturday, April 26 at 4pm outside the Montgomery Bell Park Inn and Convention Center to protest these nazis and white supremacists! You can contact Governor Bill Haslam at 615-741-2001. You could also call Commissioner Bob Martineau of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) at 615-532-0106 or you could call Montgomery Bell Park and voice your concerns at 615-797-9051. If you would like to contact us for further information about the protest on April 26 or to let us know how your conversation went with the Governor's office or other representative please email us at [email protected]

Here is an example of what you could say:

"Hello my name is _____. I am concerned about the American Renaissance (AmRen) white supremacist conference that Montgomery Bell Park is planning to host from April 25th through the 27th. I see the decision to host this conference as an irresponsible promotion of racist ideology and if you do not cancel the conference I will no longer be able to patronize the Montgomery Bell Park Inn and will be advising my family and friends to do the same. American Renaissance is a hate group composed of nazis and other fascists and its presence in the park is a clear and present danger to public health and safety. This is unacceptable and I urge you to take immediate action on this issue."