John C. Hall – Atlanta Antifascists

Documentation: Sons of Confederate Veterans Membership (circa 2017)

We are releasing a nationwide membership database for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), an organization for male descendants of Confederate veterans, which peddles “Lost Cause” narratives and fights to preserve racist monuments. Unsurprisingly, the organization provides fertile ground for more explicit white nationalists. It also has political influence. The SCV membership database we are releasing includes one current member of Georgia’s State Senate and several in the Georgia House of Representatives.

*2015 Confederate flag rally at Stone Mountain Park, a month and a half after the Charleston massacre.*

The SCV member database here was initially leaked by other parties, appearing online in early 2020. The original web link with this member database is no longer active. As first leaked on the web, the member database included “Nov2019” as part of its file name. However, a careful analysis of the member records shows that the list dates from late 2016 to early 2018, with 2017 being most likely. One email address appears to reference the year 2017; high-profile members who left SCV in March 2018 are still listed with the email addresses for their official roles. Apart from the date originally on the file name, the member records are consistent with everything we know about SCV.

Several Republican politicians in Georgia are listed in the SCV member database. Current Georgia House of Representatives members Tommy Benton (District 31), Terry England (District 116), Alan Powell (District 32) and Rick Williams (District 145) were listed as “active” SCV members circa 2017. Benton is particularly notorious, having publicly argued in 2016 that the Ku Klux Klan “made a lot of people straighten up.” Georgia House of Representatives member James A. Collins (District 68) also appears in the database but was not listed as an active member. Jeff Mullis, Georgia State Senator for District 53, appears as an “active” member. Mullis was the driving force behind SB 77, a Georgia bill designed to protect Confederate/white supremacist monuments, signed into law in 2019.

The presence of politicians in the SCV has no moderating influence and obvious white nationalists are active in the organization. In Georgia, accountant John C. Hall, Jr. of Dublin is the commander of SCV Capt. Hardy B. Smith camp #104. Hall is an associate of white power leader Sam Dickson and, in 2018, appeared in a closed social media group for the white supremacist/Southern secessionist League of the South. Another major white nationalist in Georgia SCV ranks is Marietta attorney Martin K. O’Toole. According to its most recent (2018) IRS filings, O’Toole is the President and Director of the Charles Martel Society (CMS), a secretive but influential white nationalist organization that helped to birth the Alt-Right. O’Toole is also an old friend of UK Holocaust-denier David Irving. O’Toole has been the Georgia SCV’s official spokesman since 2018. Media outlets such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution regularly quote O’Toole without noting his white nationalist history and commitments.

*Martin K. O’Toole at white nationalist American Renaissance conference, 2018*

By organizing in the SCV – which disguises its racism behind rhetoric of “heritage” – clear white nationalists can make political connections and gain influence. Nowhere is this clearer than in Georgia, where the state SCV spokesman is a white nationalist, but the organization also counts Republican legislators in its ranks.

We hope that this database is also useful to anti-racist researchers in other states.

As always, please get in touch if you have information on racist organizing in Georgia.

Mark Bryant: Marietta, Georgia Accountant for White Nationalists

Mark Bryant of Marietta, Georgia is, at first glance, an average member of his community. He is a parent, active in his church, and a practicing Certified Public Accountant. However, this accountant has for decades been active on the far-Right fringes. Bryant combines his profession with his politics by providing accounting services for white supremacists and white nationalists.

Bryant appears as the accountant for the National Policy Institute (NPI) – the white nationalist think tank largely responsible for the birth and promotion of the “Alt-Right” – from NPI’s 2008 tax filings until 2015, the most recent year for which filings are available. (Raw summary data is also available for 2016, but the filing itself with the preparer’s name has not yet been posted.)

*Bryant on National Policy Institute tax filings*

In addition, from 2007 to 2012 Bryant appeared as the accountant for the secretive Charles Martel Society (CMS), which publishes the racist, pseudo-academic Occidental Quarterly and provided seed money for the NPI. For the last three of those years, Bryant provided various mailing addresses linked to himself as the contact for CMS.

*Bryant on Charles Martel Society tax filings*

What You Did Last Summer: Atlanta Attorney Michael A. Dominy, Sam Dickson, and US-Russia Far-Right Networking

In the summer of 2018, longstanding racist leader and Atlanta attorney Sam Dickson traveled for weeks in Russia. According to an interview with “The Political Cesspool” white nationalist radio show not long after his return (broadcast August 11, 2018), “several other people” accompanied Dickson on his trip in Russia. The July 2018 trip centered around attending a commemoration for the 100^th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family by Bolsheviks, and Dickson claims to have met with several “Russian nationalists” while in the country.

*Sam Dickson message on Twitter about 2018 trip to Russia*

Our organization has discussed Dickson at length in other articles. He’s a key figure in the white nationalist movement, with a history spanning several decades. Dickson has talked at every conference for the “suit-and-tie” racists of American Renaissance since the first one in 1994. Dickson is listed as a Director for the shadowy Charles Martel Society, which publishes the Occidental Quarterly – an attempt to provide white nationalism with a veneer of respectability and intellectualism. By providing seed money for the National Policy Institute, the Charles Martel Society also helped to create the modern “Alt-Right.” Dickson mentors and seemingly employs younger white nationalists in the Atlanta area.

The 2018 Russia trip was “only the second time I’ve been in Russia,” Dickson remarked in a follow-up appearance on The Political Cesspool (broadcast September 1, 2018). In March 2015, Dickson gave a speech at the “International Russian Conservative Forum” (IRCF) in St. Petersburg. Dickson’s longtime political associate Jared Taylor of American Renaissance also traveled to the IRCF and talked. In total, the IRCF attracted approximately 150 representatives from far-Right organizations and parties in Russia, Western Europe, and the US.

*Sam Dickson speaking at the International Russian Conservative Forum in St. Petersburg, March 2015*

Here, we identify another member of Dickson’s group who traveled to Russia in July 2018: Atlanta attorney Michael A. Dominy. We discuss Dominy’s political connections, Dickson and Dominy’s apparent main contact in Russia, and that contact’s involvement with the state.

White Power Leader Sam Dickson’s Bankruptcy Filings

We are publishing documents from Atlanta attorney and white power leader Sam Dickson’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy. These documents not only give a clear picture of Dickson’s business interests but also provide details on Dickson’s political activity and associates. Dickson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2014 (Case 14-29781-LMI, Southern District of Florida US Bankruptcy Court). Then, in March 2015, his “Hickory Hill 1185” company also filed for bankruptcy (Case 15-13854-LMI, Southern District of Florida). The two bankruptcy cases are now jointly administered.

*Sam Dickson at the 2019 “American Renaissance” white nationalist conference*

We have published two earlier articles highlighting Dickson’s and other white nationalists’ activity on the Atlanta property market. For readers unfamiliar with Dickson, we suggest reading our 2017 article, “Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”, which explains his method for profiting from tax lien purchases in Black and multiracial working-class neighborhoods. Dickson has a history spanning decades in the white nationalist movement. As a participant in the secretive yet influential Charles Martel Society – where Dickson is listed as a Director – and also as a mentor for younger white nationalists, Dickson continues to influence the white power movement to this day.

*Website for Dickson’s “Villas Key West” vacation rentals, Key West, FL.*

Our articles so far have focused on Dickson’s dealings in Atlanta. By publishing Dickson’s bankruptcy filings, we broaden our picture to include information on Dickson’s property in Florida and North Carolina. Dickson’s properties in Atlanta are mostly but not exclusively vacant lots, which make a profit once sold. However, properties such as Dickson’s “Villas Key West” vacation rentals in Key West, Florida, bring in regular income.