White nationalist group spreads propaganda across Mobile, Baldwin counties

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — A white nationalist group has been posting signs in Mobile and Baldwin counties over the past few weeks, and some residents are starting to take notice.

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News 5 received a tip from a viewer last week in Spanish Fort about a sign reading, “Revolution Is Tradition,” along with the group’s website address. It was placed on an electrical box at the intersection of Old Spanish Trail and Town Centre Avenue.

Joseph Redna, a Baldwin County resident who noticed the sign while biking in the area, had strong words for Patriot Front, the group that posted it.

“I’ll go on the record and say there ain’t no room for Nazi scum in my town,” said Redna, who used an alias to prevent targeted harassment, which he said he’s experienced in the past.

What is Patriot Front?

The white nationalist group Patriot Front formed in 2017 after it split off from Vanguard America, a white supremacist organization, following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally that occurred in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes it as “an image-obsessed organization that rehabilitated the explicitly fascist agenda of Vanguard America with garish patriotism.

“Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country.”

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The group often refers to its enemy holding the country back, but it doesn’t explicitly identify that enemy.

The group’s website reads: “Americans will fully recognize themselves as a people, not merely citizens or residents of a country, but a people bearing a unique national interest rooted in our heritage on this continent.

“Our people, born to this nation of our European race, must reforge themselves as a new collective capable of asserting our right to cultural independence.”

The group regularly records its efforts to spread this propaganda and reports them to social media followers.

In 2023, the group spread 7,334 messages, according to its website, which News 5 will not share due to its content. This includes stencil and mural placements, banners, signs, posters, and flyers.

Such propaganda is spreading nationwide at record numbers, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which said the U.S. saw its highest-ever distribution of white supremacist media in 2022.

That record topped the previous year’s record, according to past reports.

It’s an issue the FBI has long been covering, too.

“Violent extremists are increasingly using social media for the distribution of propaganda, recruitment, target selection, and incitement to violence,” the FBI said in a statement before the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. “Through the Internet, violent extremists around the world have access to our local communities to target and recruit like-minded individuals and spread their messages of hate on a global scale.”

The statement also said the bureau relies “heavily on the strength of our federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to combat the domestic terrorism threat.”

Sometimes, the solution is as simple as an authorized official or worker removing the sign.

Spreading white nationalism to South Alabama

This white nationalist group posts to social media each time it spreads propaganda, and multiple posts were shared about signs being placed on property across the Gulf Coast, including Robertsdale, Spanish Fort, Fairhope, and Mobile.

In Mobile, signs were put up at Medal of Honor Park, the group said.

“I regularly bike along the Eastern Shore from Fairhope to Spanish Fort and back,” Redna said on Dec. 29. “Today was the first time I’ve seen the flyer” near an entrance to Bass Pro Shops.

Redna said he posted about the group’s signs on Reddit, a social news aggregator, but he ultimately deleted the post after receiving private messages from people he called “alt right believers.”

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He said several people he knows have seen white nationalist propaganda in the South, including in the Gulfport, Mississippi, and Birmingham areas, and on the University of South Alabama campus.

And those people did something about them.

“A few people quickly went out and found them and removed them,” Redna said. “I’d prefer to not mention those names for their safety.”

Removing white nationalist propaganda

Patriot Front posted propaganda on a Spanish Fort electrical box without permission, violating the city’s sign ordinance, News 5 learned.

“Signs are prohibited in all Districts unless: constructed pursuant to a valid building permit when required under this Ordinance; and authorized under this Ordinance,” City of Spanish Fort Ordinance No. 598-2021 Section 2.1 states.

News 5 contacted the Spanish Fort Police Department to see whether anyone had called to complain about the signs, but we learned that there were no reports from that department.

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However, Spanish Fort Mayor Michael M. McMillan said he knew about one Patriot Front sign being posted in the city.

“We did see one the week before Christmas on an electrical box, and we removed it,” McMillan said.

He told News 5 that the sign he was talking about was not the same sign Redna found at the Towne Centre Avenue and Old Spanish Trail intersection.

“You hate to see things like that,” he said. “Certainly, if it’s an illegal sign, it will be removed.”

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McMillan called removing the signs a “simple process,” but it occupies police officers’ time when those officers could be responding to more urgent calls.

News 5 contacted the Mobile Police Department and the Fairhope Police Department to find out whether they received complaints about these signs, but we received no response.

News 5 will share more information about this issue as it becomes available.

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