The modern day white Southern secessionist movement in Arkansas spent most of Saturday at the Conway Public Library. It wasn't just the thousands of publicly supported books and assorted educational materials that drew in the Southern nationalists, it was the first state conference of the Arkansas League of the South.
KUAR has covered the Arkansas League of the South and a sling of demonstrations several times (here, here, and here for example) since its 2014 launch. The band of secessionists is a state chapter of the Southern-wide League of the South which formed in 1994. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers it to be one of the most active and organized white nationalist and neo-Confederate groups. The Arkansas group appears to have a fair amount of younger members as well, including its leader.
The first state conference (which KUAR did not attend) featured a fair amount of speechifying according to the state group's leader R.G. Miller of Harrison. A few relatively prominent white Southern nationalists from outside of Arkansas ventured to the state to take part.
10:00AM - Event begins, fellowship and welcome.
10:25 - Opening prayer by Jay Rice
10:30AM - Presentation of our events and rallies over the last year - R.G. Miller
11:30AM - Speech by James Edwards "It's Personal."
12:30PM - Break for Dinner
2:00PM - Speech by R.G. Miller "Southern Nationalism: The Only Solution."
2:45-3:00PM - Break 3:00PM - Speech by Brad Griffin - Title TBA
3:45-4:00PM - Break
4:00PM - Speech by Mark Thomey "Distinguish My Cause from the Unholy Nation"
5:00PM - Closing For both dinner and supper, many of us usually eat together at the same restaurant. This is usually decided the day of the event.
Also, as is our usual custom, many of us will gather for fellowship later in the evening.
James Edwards hosts the radio program "Political Cesspool" broadcasting outside of Memphis. He most recently claimed some national attention after Donald Trump Jr. made a 20 minute appearance on the show. Trump's campaign gave Edwards media credentials earlier this year for a Memphis rally where he live broadcast the show.
The race for U.S. President also surfaced at Saturday's secessionist meeting in Faulkner County. While these Southern nationalists have little affinity for the nation at large, which they forsake, whoever is president of course impacts the Southern nationalist movement.
Brad Griffin authors one of the more well-read and oft-cited "pro-White, pro-Southern, pro-Independence" blogs, Occidental Dissent. In a recent post, Griffin (who writes as Hunter Wallace) previewed his speech about what either a Clinton or Trump victory could mean to Southern nationalists interested in building an ethnostate.
"An opportunity for our movement is approaching no matter who wins in November.
Either Trump wins and our ideas become more mainstream or Hillary wins and generates a large White backlash. There are opportunities to exploit in either scenario.
There are also great perils in either scenario. The greatest peril that I think we are facing is that a historic opportunity is coming along, but we are poorly positioned to capitalize on it. Specifically, I am worried about a descent into vanguardism. By that I mean it is becoming easier than ever before for the average White Southerner to see our point of view. And yet, I see many of our activists racing in the opposite direction, away from the people who are waking up.
We should be trying to capitalize on the present national angst to connect with our target audience. Instead, I see tendency among radicals to seal themselves off from the mainstream and erect new barriers to communication. I see many of our own people engaged in constant infighting on social media, saber-rattling with violent rhetoric, playing the I’m-more-radical-than-you-are game, getting into heated arguments over religion, and magnifying small points of disagreement to the point of driving away new recruits. Millions of our people are waking up and looking at the world with new eyes, but they aren’t looking to join a survivalist/militia group waiting for the apocalypse.
Whites are under attack. The South is under attack. Christianity is under attack. We need to keeping hammering home that message in a measured tone. We need to build relationships with the people who agree with us on these issues. We need to gain their trust. We don’t need to dress anyone down who agrees with our core beliefs. Instead, we should be looking for points of agreement to bring them into the fold."
Unlike the Southern-wide LOS annual conference held at the group's building in Wetumpka, Alabama the Arkansas League of the South did not hold any public demonstrations coinciding with the gathering. But they did manage to rile up at least one library employee (as identified by Griffin). The publisher of the video introduced it with a level of sensitivity and respect typical from LOS supporters addressing someone other than a white, Southern Christian, "Negro loses it at Arkansas League of the South State Conference."
In the video an African-American man asks the room, "You're going to use the Lord's name in this? This is what Jesus stood for?" He also said, several times, "I want to walk outside this office right here and I want to know you." The videographer interpreted it as a threat.
Last year's battles in the state legislature over the Robert E. Lee/Martin Luther King Jr. duel state holiday occurred before the League of the South had organized an Arkansas chapter. Although a former member, former Republican State Rep. Loy Mauch, played a role in opposing an effort to separate the holidays. The Arkansas chapter has previously promised to be a vocal force if the issue re-emerges, as expected, in the 2017 legislative session.
UPDATE:
Arkansas LOS Chair R.G. Miller has this recap up on Facebook.
Our first annual state conference in Arkansas can be classified as nothing other than a complete success. We began with a presentation on our activism here in Arkansas over the past year. As the state chairman, even I was impressed when looking back at all we have been able to get accomplished in such a short time, especially in our street demonstrations. We have held seven successful demonstrations since our inception in late 2014, and six since around this time last year. Several of these had over 50 participants, and the largest had nearly 70. In addition to this, we have had two billboards here in Arkansas, one of which still stands on the main East/West thoroughfare in Harrison. This presentation was very encouraging to the attendees and gave us a good idea of what the future holds. After that we had three speeches by some of the best speakers in Southern Nationalism. The biggest name was of course James Edwards from the political cesspool, and Brad Griffin from Occidental Dissent, Mark Thomey, and I spoke as well. The speeches were very well received by the audience of around 30 men, women, and children. Another encouraging aspect to this conference was the presence of several new prospective members, which most of us had never met. Southern Nationalism is definitely growing in Arkansas.
We even had a brief period of entertainment after eating dinner together at a local restaurant. After we returned to the library event room, a negro employee of the Faulkner County Library was present with a recording device. As one of the stipulations of using the event location was that it had to be open to the public, initially we decided to ignore the negro and go on as planned. However, after the negro sat through Mr. Thomey's speech, he could contain himself no more. It seems that a brave, unapologetic white Southerner proclaiming the truth grates against the negro mind that is so used to pandering by cucked whites. After the speech, the negro railed at Mr. Thomey and attempted to cause unrest. However, our people demonstrated maturity and our utter superiority over the uncivil and barbaric discourse of the negro, and the situation was soon resolved when his supervisor escorted him out of the room. Several of us and other Southern Nationalists have left unfavorable reviews of the library that have been addressed by the chief supervisor. Hopefully, the negro will learn his lesson and be terminated.
After the conference was over, several of us spent some good time together that carried into the night, as is our usual custom. Brad Griffin and I joined James Edwards for a remote broadcast of the Political Cesspool, where we discussed some of the topics addressed at the conference. Overall, it was a great event, and one which we will look forward to each upcoming year. We are truly blessed here in Arkansas, and I expect great things out of our organization and people in the coming months and years.
God save the South!
R.G. Miller
