How a Whites-Only Group Plans To Turn Rural Tennessee Into Its Homeland
Members of a whites-only group with extensive ties to the white power movement have purchased a nearly 70-acre property in central Tennessee that they intend to use as a self-described 鈥渉eadquarters,鈥� a Hatewatch investigation found.
Kira Barber, 39, acting as an apparent representative for the Asatru Folk Assembly聽(AFA), purchased the tract of land, located in a rural area of Jackson County, Tennessee, in December 2022 for $250,000, according to public records. Group leaders have described the property, located roughly 80 miles outside of Nashville, as the AFA 鈥渃apital鈥� and the group鈥檚 鈥渃orporate and ecclesiastical headquarters.鈥� In newsletters and fundraising materials intended to raise money for improving the plot of land on the group鈥檚 website, the AFA has stated it intends to construct a hof (temple) and school for young people.
Members of the Asatru Folk Assembly聽(AFA) practice an exclusively white form of pre-Christian Norse and Germanic religions that the Southern Poverty Law Center refers to as 苍别辞-痴枚濒办颈蝉肠丑, with 31 chapters in the U.S. as of 2022. Founded by Stephen McNallen in Northern California in the late 1960s, the group has described its core demographic as 鈥淓thnic European Folk,鈥� which it has defined as 鈥渨hite people.鈥� Group representatives 聽that AFA would deny admission to Black people 鈥渂ecause they鈥檙e not of northern European descent,鈥� as well as 人兽性交+ people.
AFA 聽and its blog on Dec. 9, 2022, that the group had purchased land in Tennessee. Since then, the organization has held gatherings with prominent members on the land 鈥� and plans to hold more. A January event featured AFA leader Matthew Flavel and other core members. The group has scheduled a handful of events throughout the summer, including one in August with McNallen. The plot is underdeveloped and lacked any structures at the time of purchase, according to photos from real estate website Zillow and Tennessee public records, though a source familiar with AFA鈥檚 activities in the region told Hatewatch that members of the group had camped out on the land. AFA has since shared photos and videos across various social media platforms featuring construction equipment and 听颈苍 , as well as maps detailing plans for constructing multi-family homes and communal meeting spaces.
While there are few mentions of Barber鈥檚 involvement with AFA online, one of the group鈥檚 leaders, Allen Turnage, 61, served as an attorney-in-fact for Barber throughout the purchase process, according to sales documents obtained by Hatewatch. Turnage is a Florida-based bankruptcy lawyer who has helped lead the group since 2016. He served as a representative for AFA in similar acquisition efforts, including the group鈥檚 in rural Minnesota in summer 2020.
Hatewatch verified the authenticity of the sales documents by comparing them with publicly available information from the Tennessee comptroller of the treasury, which lists Barber as the owner of the same parcel of land.
AFA members retained ties to a number of avowed white supremacist groups, and some, , marched among neo-Nazis, white nationalists, Klansmen and others at the deadly 2017 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally听颈苍 Charlottesville, Virginia. Though he no longer holds any official title within AFA, McNallen on the low-moderation app Telegram that he intends to speak at this year鈥檚 white nationalist American Renaissance聽conference, though he is not currently listed among the speakers on American Renaissance鈥檚 website. The conference, which is held annually in a park about an hour outside of Nashville, takes place this year between Aug. 11-13 鈥� exactly six years after 鈥淯nite the Right.鈥�
Hatewatch reached out to Barber over text message and left a message at her office but received no response. Hatewatch contacted Turnage and Flavel over email. Neither of the men responded. Hatewatch left a voicemail with the Jackson County Sheriff鈥檚 Department but did not hear back. Jackson County Mayor Randy Heady declined to comment.
鈥極ur first settler鈥�
For members of the AFA, the plot of land, located on a country road in the unincorporated village of Whitleyville, represents their 鈥淪igrheim.鈥� The name is based on an Old Norse word, 鈥渟igrheimr,鈥� meaning 鈥渉ome of victory.鈥� In a fundraising appeal on AFA鈥檚 website, the group described establishing 鈥淪igrheim鈥� as 鈥渢he dream of Asatruar since the reforging of our faith in the 1960s.鈥�
鈥溍乻atr煤ar鈥� is a modern Icelandic term that AFA has appropriated, and Americanized, to refer to McNallen鈥檚 followers specifically. Practitioners of 脕satr煤, including the 脕satr煤 Fellowship in Iceland, 聽using their faith 鈥渁s a justification for supremacy ideology鈥� and 鈥渕ilitarism.鈥�
Since purchasing the property in December 2022, AFA has shared material on social media and in their official newsletter, 鈥淩unestone,鈥� depicting members at 鈥淪igrheim,鈥� including the January event with several members of AFA leadership. AFA did not disclose the exact location in Tennessee of these events, though it referenced the state in multiple social media posts.
However, a source, to whom Hatewatch has granted anonymity to protect them from retaliation, identified the January event as having taken place at the Whitleyville property. They described witnessing nine to 10 cars, some with out-of-state plates, parked on the property around the time of the Jan. 14 event.
鈥淭hey were kind of having a party on the road,鈥� the source told Hatewatch.
A YouTube video posted to AFA鈥檚 channel on Jan. 17 includes photos of Flavel, AFA鈥檚 leader; Turnage, the lawyer who facilitated the purchase of the Whitleyville property; and various AFA clergy from other states.
The same source also described observing multiple young men traveling to and from the property throughout early 2023. The source described one man camping on the site, beginning in mid-April, despite there being no running water or sewage system in place.
AFA has acknowledged members of the group residing at 鈥淪igrheim.鈥� An AFA member with access to the group鈥檚 YouTube account left a comment on the Jan. 17 video on April 12, , 鈥淥ur first settler moved out to the property yesterday as a matter of fact!鈥� The timing of the comment matches when the source told Hatewatch that a man starting camping on the property.
Promotional material for AFA鈥檚 forthcoming July event advertises 鈥渃amping 鈥� available on site,鈥� though advises attendees to bring their own equipment. The event is set to take place at 鈥淪igrheim鈥� on July 22. The group has also shared material on its website promoting a June 17 鈥渕idsummer鈥� gathering, as well as an Aug. 11 event with McNallen, that are set to take place at 鈥淪igrheim.鈥�
Muddling AFA鈥檚 involvement
While the group has referred to 鈥淪igrheim鈥� as a 鈥渉eadquarters鈥� for the organization, public records and sale documents provided to Hatewatch by a source familiar with the transaction do not explicitly disclose the AFA鈥檚 involvement.
Barber is listed as the sole owner of the property in Whitleyville, according to materials from the Tennessee comptroller of the treasury, which keeps records on properties throughout the state. Barber and Turnage, acting as her attorney-in-fact, are the only two names associated with the buyers on a sale agreement for the 68.65-acre piece of land, which both signed on Oct. 27, 2022. Title company documentation indicates that Barber obtained a loan to help pay for the property under her own name.
The source familiar with the transaction told Hatewatch that Turnage, as attorney-in-fact, took the lead on the purchase of the land.
Few mentions of Barber鈥檚 apparent involvement in AFA exist online. However, Hatewatch was able to determine her connection with the group based on a letter from AFA鈥檚 leader published online after the sale, as well as the P.O. box she listed as her mailing address on Tennessee state records associated with the Whitleyville property.
In a December 2022 edition of the 鈥淩unestone,鈥� Flavel credited 鈥渢he special effort of Daniel Mason and his wife Kira鈥� for obtaining 鈥淪igrheim.鈥� Public records indicate that Barber cohabitates in Maine with a person named Daniel Mason. Mason is also listed as an AFA member on their website.
Hatewatch also found that Barber listed a Tallahassee, Florida-based post office box as her mailing address in documents filed with the comptroller of the treasury. The P.O. box address that Barber has associated herself with matches one used by AFA鈥檚 corporate entity, the Asatru Folk Assembly, Inc. Florida corporate records for Asatru Folk Assembly, Inc., identify Turnage as the group鈥檚 secretary as of early 2023.
Rural roots and white separatism
AFA鈥檚 move to Tennessee is far from the first time that the organization has tried to establish a base in a rural area. In 2020, the group purchased two former churches in rural towns in North Carolina and Minnesota with the intent of using them as meeting spaces.
In April of that year, AFA purchased a former Methodist church in Linden, North Carolina, located about an hour south of Raleigh. At the time, the town had a population of around 130, a quarter of whom were Black. A 2021 described the town鈥檚 leadership as 鈥渕ostly silent.鈥�
Then, in June, the AFA bought a former Lutheran church in Murdock, Minnesota, a small village roughly 115 miles northwest of the Twin Cities with a population of fewer than 300 people at the time of the church鈥檚 purchase. That December, the 聽to approve a conditional permit to allow AFA to use the church as a 鈥渉of.鈥� When pressed for comment, the mayor of Murdock 聽the decision as 鈥渟trictly a zoning issue.鈥�
Following the city council鈥檚 approval of the permit, someone using the pseudonym 鈥淓ridan Ampora鈥� launched a Change.org petition calling upon the town to block AFA from using the building.
AFA has continued to use the North Carolina and Minnesota properties throughout 2023. In both cases, Flavel cited the proximity of AFA members to both towns as an explanation for the group鈥檚 decision to purchase those particular churches.
AFA leaders, such as Flavel, have criticized pushback against the group鈥檚 white separatist beliefs while nevertheless defending their decision to exclude people of color. In a 2020 interview with an NBC affiliate in Minnesota, for instance, Turnage characterized the group鈥檚 membership as 鈥淣orthern European鈥� and verified that the group would reject Black, indigenous and other non-white people.
鈥淚 think the best analogy is that we view our gods as our ancestors. 鈥� If we have a family reunion, it鈥檚 only our family,鈥� Turnage 听碍础搁-11.
However, some practitioners of 脕satr煤 have condemned the AFA鈥檚 appropriation of Norse religious terminology and imagery for racist ends.
鈥淣arrowing 脕satr煤 down to a politicized religion for one imagined racial group is a strangely self-defeating theological choice,鈥� Karl E.H. Seigfried, who writes and leads聽, a diverse 脕satr煤 organization in Chicago, told Hatewatch in an email.
鈥淎lthough older generations of academics wrongly and anachronistically translated Old Norse terms for family, generation, kin, tribe, and house as 鈥榬ace,鈥� the sources themselves are overtly inclusive. Names like All-Father and World Tree are part of a cosmic cosmology that embraces multiple interacting worlds and many intermarrying tribes. To shrink this enormous theological vision down to a tiny racial ideology is to diminish it to a point of insignificance,鈥� Seigfried added.
Photo illustration by 人兽性交
