Alleged white supremacist pleads guilty in fire at social justice center that trained civil rights icons

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News/AP

April 13, 2026, 7:25 PM EDT / Source: The Associated Press


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A man linked to white supremacist movements pleaded guilty Monday to setting a fire that destroyed an office at a historic social justice center in Tennessee, a court document shows. Regan Prater also pleaded guilty to attempting to aid a foreign terrorist organization for efforts to provide the militant group Hezbollah "a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel," according to a criminal information filed in February.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9 in Knoxville. A public defender representing Prater did not immediately respond to an email and phone message requesting comment. Prater was arrested last April in connection with the arson at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market. The arrest came more than six years after the March 2019 blaze, which caused more than $1.2 million in damage, prosecutors say.

An affidavit filed in federal court in East Tennessee last year said Prater's posts in several group chats affiliated with white supremacist organizations connected him to the crime. In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe was 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.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/alleged-white-supremacist-pleads-guilty-fire-social-justice-center-rcna331639

[AverageOldGuy]

1. Highlander has a long, influential, and important history

I recommend everyone read the Wikipedia article on Highlander:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander_Research_and_Education_Center

Highlander was founded in 1932 and was critical in the training and education of activists in labor, civil rights, and other movements that seek to empower and lift up people.

Throughout its history Highlander was the target of rightwingers from the Klan through McCarthyites to today's MAGAts. The Tennessee state government has long practiced a quiet vendetta against Highlander.

I was a college student in Alabama in the mid-1960's where I marched in Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. White crowds threw rocks and bottles at us as well as spitting on us and calling us vile names. A common site among those attacking us were commercially-made signs depicting Rev. King sitting in a classroom with a caption that read something like "King Trained by Communists" -- the photo was of him at what was then known as the Highlander Folk School.

The record of attacks on Highlander should show us that the forces which produced Trump have been with us always . . . and, sadly, will not disappear with him.

Here is the Highlander website.
https://beta.highlandercenter.org/

[Midnight Writer]

2. "A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement", a "triple cross". Like Hegseth's tattoo?

[Buddyzbuddy]

3. Now the Felon is going to have to Pardon him and hire him in some sensitive official Gov't. capacity.

Maybe something in the civil rights division of the Justice Dept.

[kimbutgar]

4. He looks like such a typical maga

Bald with a full beard !