Nashville grapples with lingering neo-Nazi presence in tourist-friendly city

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Among the throngs of tourists in cowboy attire who flock to Nashville's famed downtown honky-tonks, a small but unsettling group has distracted locals and visitors from the neon lights lately with Nazi salutes and white supremacist rhetoric.

For weeks, neo-Nazis have livestreamed antisemitic antics for shock value in Nashville — waving swastika flags through crowded streets, singing hate songs on the downtown courthouse steps and even briefly disrupting a Metro Council meeting with jeers.

Their continued presence has sparked hard questions about why Music City is attracting groups amplifying Nazi beliefs and what, if anything, can help stop them.

“What's significant is that so many of groups feel so emboldened,” said Jon Lewis, a George Washington University Program on Extremism research fellow. “They're a symptom of the broader disease that is mainstreaming.”