Latest news with #HighlanderResearchandEducationCenter
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Trial date set for TN man accused of arson at historic Highlander Center
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Tennessee man charged with setting fire to an education center that trained civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks and John Lewis in 2019 was indicted on Wednesday. The 27-year-old pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday and a trial date has been set for later this year. Regan Prater faces one count of arson and one count of carrying an explosive device during the commission of the arson in connection to the fire that destroyed the Highlander Research and Education Center in Jefferson County. He remains in federal custody pending trial, which has been scheduled for July 15 in United States District Court in Knoxville. Car burglaries strike fear into Sevier County neighborhood If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the arson charge and an additional 10 years for the explosive charge. Investigators say Prater used an homemade explosive to firebomb the center's administrative building on March 29, 2019. Officials said the fire destroyed decades of historic documents, speeches, artifacts, and memorabilia from the Civil Rights Era and other social movements. An affidavit filed in federal court says posts made by Prater in several group chats affiliated with white supremacist groups link him to the Highlander Center fire. Court documents also allege he was inspired by the March 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. A white-power symbol was found spray-painted on the pavement of a parking lot at the site of the fire, the same symbol that appeared on the Christchurch gunman's rifle. Prater was previously sentenced to five years in federal prison for setting fire to an adult video store in Manchester, Tennessee in June 2019. ▶ See more top stories on The Highlander Center was founded in Monteagle in 1932 before moving to New Market in 1971. The nonprofit organization educated many of the Civil Rights Movement's most important figures, including John Lewis and Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a keynote address for the school's 25th anniversary celebration in 1957. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Moscow community organizes follow-up event to address religious extremism in Idaho
Heath Druzin (center) is applauded by panelists on Dec. 17, 2024, at the "United Against Hate Summit." (Photo by Tracy Simmons/FāVS News) This story was first published by FāVS News on April 30, 2025. In May Palouse organizations will be hosting 'United in Community: Coming Together for Our Community and Democracy,' a follow-up event to the recent United Against Hate Summit with podcaster Heath Druzin. The May 17 event requires registration as attendance is limited. Those interested can register at online. Keynote speaker will be Scot Nakagawa, who brings 42 years of experience in social justice advocacy and has worked extensively against authoritarianism and for inclusive democracy since 1988. Nakagawa has collaborated with organizations including the National Anti-Klan Network and the Highlander Research and Education Center. He co-founded ChangeLab, addressing Asian American leadership in social justice, and previously served as Senior Fellow on Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and Race at Race Forward. The previous event, which drew nearly 200 Moscow residents, focused on combating Christian nationalism and featured Druzin, host of the 'Extremely American' podcast. Druzin's investigation into Christ Church and its leader Doug Wilson's growing influence in the community was highlighted in his podcast's second season, 'Onward Christian Soldiers,' which has reached over 1 million downloads. According to Druzin, Wilson runs the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a nationwide Calvinist church group, along with an education network of 500 classical Christian schools. While Wilson has gained national attention in Christian nationalist circles, his church members have not found success in local political offices. The upcoming 'United in Community' event will include organizational presentations, discussion groups and collaborative planning for community action. It will be from 1-4 p.m. at the 1912 Center in Moscow. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Black America Web
02-05-2025
- Black America Web
Alleged White Supremacist Charged In 2019 Arson Of Activist Center Where MLK, John Lewis And Rosa Parks Trained
Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE Source: Just over six years ago, on March 29, 2019, a Tennessee social justice center that served as a training ground for civil rights legends like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks was tragically burned along with decades of archives. Last week, a suspect was finally arrested in connection with the burning, and, unsurprisingly, he has also been linked to a white supremacist movement as well as another arson. According to the Associated Press, 27-year-old Regan Prater was arrested last Thursday and charged with one count of arson after authorities linked him to several group chats affiliated with white supremacist organizations. In one chat, Prater was allegedly asked if he had committed the burning of the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tenn, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in East Tennessee. From AP: In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe is Prater whether he set the fire. 'I'm not admitting anything,' the person using the screen name 'Rooster' wrote. But he later went on to describe exactly how the fire was set with 'a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.' A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement near the site of the fire. The affidavit describes it as a 'triple cross' and says it was also found on one of the firearms used by a shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, about two weeks before the Highlander fire. Then there's the fact that Prater had already been charged, convicted and sentenced for another arson he committed less than three months after Highlander was burned. Prater previously pleaded guilty to the June 2019 arson of an adult video and novelty store in East Tennessee. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $106,000 in restitution for the property he destroyed. One can imagine that after six years with no arrests or suspects being named, local activists and community members were growing restless while wondering if anyone would ever be held accountable for the damage done to such a historic site. 'Every time the wind blew, we would see what was left of it go up in flames again, for weeks,' Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, a former co-executive director at Highlander, said, describing what she saw when she arrived at the scene of the fire in 2019. Woodard Henerson said she recalled feeling frustrated and how investigators had been vague and uninformative regarding the investigation, despite early signs that the arsonist had ties to white supremacist groups. 'We were told that it was like finding a needle in the haystack to prove who did it — that that's in fact the point of an arson,' she said. 'You've got to remember this was 2019, so Donald Trump was still in his first presidency. Frankly, for years, we didn't get any updates.' (Side note: Before readers start wondering why Woodard Henderson would mention Trump, it should be noted that his current administration recently ended a settlement agreement regarding wastewater issues in a mostly Black rural Alabama county, citing Trump's anti-DEI directive as if diversity efforts have anything to do with a court ruling just because it may have corrected environmental racism. It's not difficult to imagine his federal government not caring about some Black activist center that got burned down by one of his 'very fine people.') Here's a little more history on Higlander via AP: Highlander is known as a place where Civil Rights icons such as Rosa Parks and John Lewis received training. Parks attended a workshop there on integration in 1955, about six months before she famously refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She always credited Highlander with helping her become a more determined activist. Parks returned to Highlander two years later with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the school's 25th anniversary celebration, where King gave a keynote address on achieving freedom and equality through nonviolence. First established in Monteagle in 1932 as a center for union organizing, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was among its early supporters. Highlander's co-founder and longtime leader, Myles Horton, a white man, created a place that was unique in the Jim Crow South, where activists white and Black could build and strengthen alliances. In his memoir, Congressman Lewis wrote of how eye-opening being at Highlander was. The Highlander Research and Education Center will be 93 years old this year, and six years after the fire, administrators say a rebuild of its administrative office is expected to be completed soon, according to Allyn Steele, a co-executive director at Highlander. SEE ALSO: Clayborn Temple, Historic Landmark In Memphis With Ties To Martin Luther King Jr., Catches Fire Candace Owens' MAGA Meltdown: The Hypocrisy, The Flip-Flop, And The Fallout SEE ALSO Alleged White Supremacist Charged In 2019 Arson Of Activist Center Where MLK, John Lewis And Rosa Parks Trained was originally published on
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
White Supremacist Is Charged in 2019 Arson at Tennessee Civil Rights Landmark
A Tennessee man with ties to several white supremacist groups has been charged with setting a fire in 2019 that destroyed the offices of a social justice center connected with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., according to court records. In a federal criminal complaint that was unsealed on April 24, the F.B.I. said that the man, Regan Prater, 27, set fire to the main offices of the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tenn., near Knoxville, and spray-painted an Iron Guard cross on the pavement outside. The symbol originated with fascists in Romania in the 1920s and 1930s, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It has more recently been used by white supremacists, including one who murdered 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019. Investigators in Tennessee said that Mr. Prater, of Tullahoma, took credit for the arson while chatting with an informant on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that he used to communicate with other white supremacists. 'I didn't admit that, but dots can be connected,' Mr. Prater wrote to the informant when asked if he had set the fire, according to the complaint. He then gave details about how he had started the blaze, telling the informant, 'It was a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.' Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
San Francisco Chronicle
30-04-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Feds charge alleged white supremacist over 2019 arson at Tennessee school that trained Rosa Parks
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A suspect whom authorities have linked to white supremacist movements has been arrested in the March 2019 fire that destroyed an office at a storied Tennessee social justice center. Regan Prater was arrested last Thursday and charged with one count of arson. An affidavit filed in federal court in East Tennessee says Prater's posts in several group chats affiliated with white supremacist organizations connect him to the blaze at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market. In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe is Prater whether he set the fire. 'I'm not admitting anything,' the person using the screen name 'Rooster' wrote. But he later went on to describe exactly how the fire was set with 'a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.' A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement near the site of the fire. The affidavit describes it as a 'triple cross' and says it was also found on one of the firearms used by a shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, about two weeks before the Highlander fire. Prater was previously sentenced to five years in federal prison for setting another fire in June 2019 at an adult video and novelty store in East Tennessee. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $106,000 in restitution in that case. At the scene of that fire, investigators found a cellphone they later determined belonged to Prater. The phone included a short video showing a person inside the store lighting an accelerant, according to the affidavit. The federal public defender listed as representing Prater did not respond to an email and phone message requesting comment. The blaze at Highlander broke out in the early morning of March 29, 2019. No one was injured. The building that burned was part of a complex and it housed decades' worth of irreplaceable documents, artifacts, speeches and other materials from different eras including the Civil Rights Movement. In an interview, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, a former co-executive director at Highlander, recalled arriving at the scene of the fire to discover some priceless items from the administrative office still smoldering. 'Every time the wind blew, we would see what was left of it go up in flames again, for weeks,' Woodard Henderson said. The trauma of the ordeal was compounded by a feeling that, despite early signs that the culprit had ties to white supremacist movements, authorities were opaque about the investigation, Woodard Henderson said. 'We were told that it was like finding a needle in the haystack to prove who did it — that that's in fact the point of an arson,' she said. 'You've got to remember this was 2019, so Donald Trump was still in his first presidency. Frankly, for years, we didn't get any updates.' A week after the incident, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, of Memphis, called for a federal probe. He also called on more government funding to counter an uptick in hate crimes and white nationalism nationwide. Woodard Henderson said authorities informed Highlander's leaders in 2022 that they were indeed victims of a hate-motivated attack. Rosa Parks, John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr. had ties to the center Highlander is known as a place where Civil Rights icons such as Rosa Parks and John Lewis received training. Parks attended a workshop there on integration in 1955, about six months before she famously refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She always credited Highlander with helping her become a more determined activist. Parks returned to Highlander two years later with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the school's 25th anniversary celebration, where King gave a keynote address on achieving freedom and equality through nonviolence. First established in Monteagle in 1932 as a center for union organizing, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was among its early supporters. Highlander's co-founder and longtime leader, Myles Horton, a white man, created a place that was unique in the Jim Crow South, where activists white and Black could build and strengthen alliances. In his memoir, Congressman Lewis wrote of how eye-opening being at Highlander was. Highlander 'was the first time in my life that I saw black people and white people not just sitting down together at long tables for shared meals, but also cleaning up together afterward, doing the dishes together, gathering together late into the night in deep discussion,' he wrote. 'That paved the way for Highlander's work around the Civil Rights Movement, or the Black Freedom Struggle, as we should rightly call it,' said Allyn Steele, a co-executive director of Highlander. Highlander turns 93 this year and, six years past the fire, it expects to complete a rebuild of its administrative office, Steele said. 'I think if their goal was to break our spirit, they failed miserably,' she said. 'If anything, it reminded us that there's a collective responsibility in our movements to keep each other safe.' ___
