Even on Tuesday night, when they disrupted a meeting of the Metro Council, spouting “antisemitic, homophobic and racist diatribes,” according to the Nashville Scene’s Eli Motycka, I couldn’t say I was surprised. Just a week earlier, a different group marched on our streets carrying Confederate flags, and in February white supremacists marched here to celebrate “the great white South.” As a blue city in a deep-red state, Nashville has become an appealing target for people who fear diversity. “Diversity means fewer white people,” read the flyers that last week’s marchers handed out. Equity means stealing from white people.”In an irony of timing, “Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control,” a new book by the Nashville historian Betsy T. Phillips, was published on the same day that white supremacists harassed Nashville’s Metro Council. The book offers a necessary reminder of the world these neo-Nazis are nostalgic for.

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Persons: Eli Motycka, supremacists, ”, “, Betsy T, Phillips, Alexander Looby Organizations: Metro Council, Nashville, Equity, FBI, Bombers, Hattie Cotton School, Jewish Community Center, Nashville City Locations: Nashville