Ex-League of the South Member Arrested at Black Lives Matter Rally in Tennessee
A former League of the South member who attended multiple rallies with the neo-Confederate hate group faces disorderly conduct charges in east Tennessee.
Hawkins County, Tennessee, jail records show that 25-year-old Garon Joseph Archer of Johnson City, Tennessee, was arrested July 11聽and charged with disorderly conduct during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Archer has longstanding ties to the neo-Confederate League of the South and stood with the group at the deadly 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017.
The incident on July 11 took place in a small town where BLM protesters gathered.
Archer was one of several counterprotesters wearing shirts with the legends 鈥淣ational Socialist Club 131鈥� and bearing the logo for 鈥淕ood Night Left Side,鈥� .
The paper reported that Archer tried to attack several people and was bleeding from his mouth at the time of the arrest.
The Hawkins County Sheriff鈥檚 Office did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday morning. The Hawkins County General Sessions Clerk did not immediately return phone and email messages inquiring about Archer鈥檚 status.
A white nationalist life
Archer marched with the League of the South in several rallies in 2017. Photos from Unite the Right聽show Archer wearing a black baseball-style helmet and carrying a white shield with a black cross on it 鈥� a common symbol carried by white nationalist groups that day.
Unite the Right聽turned violent, with multiple clashes between white nationalists and counterprotesters. After the rally dispersed, James Alex Fields Jr., a neo-Nazi from Ohio, rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring more than two dozen people and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Fields, 23, is serving multiple life sentences in federal prison for murder.
The League has a history of violence at rallies, including one member being convicted of attacking a Black man in a parking garage after Unite the Right.
聽on Aug. 26, 2017, Archer claims there is 鈥渙ne southern nation鈥� that is white. Archer told the paper he believes people of color are 鈥渋nvading the South more or less and they are replacing us, slowly but surely.鈥�
Archer鈥檚 comments are emblematic of the replacement theory, sometimes called 鈥榳hite genocide,鈥� popular among neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis and racist groups. The theories are sometimes used by white nationalists to justify violence against minority groups.
On Facebook in a League of the South group, Archer praised the group鈥檚 leader, Michael Hill, and then-Traditionalist Worker Party head Matthew Heimbach as 鈥渓eaders.鈥�
鈥淭hey lead by example and would never ask their own soldiers to do anything they wouldn鈥檛 do themselves,鈥� Archer wrote. 鈥淟eaders are not boys like [Daily Stormer founder]聽Andrew Anglin that hide behind a laptop screen and talk shit. You鈥檙e a satirist, bro, not the second coming of George Washington.鈥�
Archer appears to have split with the League in 2018, during the extended fallout surrounding the group's participation in聽Unite the Right. On a League Facebook page, a member asked why the group banned Archer.
鈥淭hat is a question best asked of the admins by private message,鈥� South Carolina League chairman Pat Hines replied.
