White nationalist talk at UT draws about 45 and 250 protesters for peaceful event

About 250 protesters gathered on the University of Tennessee's campus Saturday afternoon to speak out against a gathering by white nationalist group the Traditionalist Worker Party and its leader, Matthew Heimbach.

The event drew about 45 white nationalists to Dabney-Buehler Hall. About 200 members of law enforcement from four different agencies were on site to monitor security at the event and the protests taking place.

There were no arrests, though six people were issued tickets for obstructing a highway during the protests, according to University of Tennessee Police Chief Troy Lane.

"I have repeatedly said they weren’t invited," said UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport afterward. "We didn’t want them here. I certainly didn’t want them to come here. This is not a place that stands for hate and bigotry and prejudice. I’ve said that before and I’ll say it again."

Heimbach is co-founder of the TWP and spent more than two hours talking to the roughly 45 people gathered with him on Saturday about his vision for a whites-only state where the purpose of women is "to have and raise children" and homosexuality is grounds for capital punishment.

No Nazis on Rocky Top

Meanwhile, protesters assembled at the Humanities Amphitheater for a "No Nazis on Rocky Top" event organized by the UTK Progressive Student Alliance.

Despite a cold rain, the group later spread across campus, with many choosing not to enter a secure demonstration area police had set up outside Ayres Hall.

Read more: Why you can't wear masks at a protest in Tennessee

The crowd was a motley crew of students, faculty and local residents wielding fabric banners and poster board signs that read "no nazis in knox" and "all you fascists are going to lose."

They were also joined by about a dozen black-clad members of the counter fascism group Anti-fa, some of whom were wearing makeshift masks to avoid being "doxxed," a tactic used by white supremacist groups to intimidate others by finding and publishing their personal information.

"We stand for education and we stand against ignorance," Jon Shefner, a sociology professor at UT, told the crowd.

"We stand for the inclusion of diverse voices and lives and stand against the exclusion of these voices. We stand for compassion, we stand for excellence, we stand for solidarity and we stand against those who use fear as a tool of division."

Giovani Ciazza, a sophomore studying communications, was blaring "Why can't we be friends?" from a Bluetooth speaker and wearing a "don't tread on me" flag pinned with "socialism sucks" buttons.

"Because it does," the libertarian student activist explained. "But I'm walking with students who believe in communism and socialism because I feel like we should all get together to stand up against something that's wrong, like Nazis."

Most of the protesters did not cross the street to their designated protest area. A few students explained they were frustrated with being searched and contained to a particular area because they pay tuition to the University of Tennessee. So the groups shouted from across the street.

Davenport: "Our work continues"

No students were in attendance inside Heimbach's talk, which was planned as part of a recruiting effort. He said students had been prevented from entering by police because of "security concerns" if they were late and said that police had also decided not to open a second entrance to the event.

Ryan Robinson, a spokesman for UT, said students were not prohibited from entering the talk and that all admittance and ticketing was up to TWP. The total cost for security Saturday was not immediately available, Lane said.

Read more: UT president, chancellor condemn extremist activity

Heimbach's talk was part of a "National Socialism or Death" tour he plans to take to universities in three other states - Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia.

"We just wanted to come and talk about our positions and what we believe in," Heimbach said. "The fact (security) was so over the top and we have to have one step below bringing out the National Guard, it increased interest. I think there are a lot of UTK students and a lot of students in general that are hearing this for the first time. I think it was tremendously successful."

The UT campus has been holding counter events for the last week, starting with a United at the Rock Against Racism gathering that was held Feb. 9 and drew more than 400 faculty, students and staff to UT's iconic Rock for an anti-racism rally.

The Rock has been the target of frequent messaging by the TWP in recent weeks including swastikas and messages such as "white pride."

Read more: UT holds gathering against racism in advance of white nationalist talk

There have also been calls for UT to ban the group from coming to campus, but administrators have said the First Amendment prevents them from doing so and campus policies also allow for the public to rent certain spaces on campus.

Davenport said Saturday she will be reviewing the event as well as UT policies going forward.

"Our work continues," she said. "It didn’t start today and it won’t end today. It’s a lifelong process fighting for the values we believe in, which are certainly not the same values as those who came to our campus today. Racism is something we talk about, that we work on, that we research. We’ll continue to work on that."