In April 2022, we published the first part of “Notes on Martin Kenneth O’Toole and White Supremacy.” Now, four years later, Martin O’Toole unfortunately remains relevant to anti-racists due to his ongoing activism as a white nationalist, as well as his continuing role as the spokesperson for Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Media outlets still quote O’Toole as the voice of this Confederate “heritage” organization without referencing his decades of white nationalist activity.
Martin O’Toole
Our first “Notes” on O’Toole discussed O’Toole’s racist organizing at University of Georgia in the 1970s. We then covered his activities in the 1980s facilitating the production and mass mailing of newsletters for NSDAP/AO, a neo-Nazi group. We also discussed O’Toole’s assistance with Instauration, a racist and antisemitic publication. We concluded with a discussion of O’Toole’s activity in the Holocaust denial scene, which included hosting events for Hitler-sympathizer David Irving in the Atlanta area, as well as operating a related publishing company.
In this second article, we finish our coverage of O’Toole’s racist career by outlining his history with three virulently racist groups: American Renaissance, the Charles Martel Society, and the Foundation for Human Understanding (FHU). During the period when O’Toole led FHU, the Foundation reprinted Siege, a notorious book which has inspired neo-Nazi terrorist attacks. Finally, we discuss O’Toole’s travel to Russia with other white nationalists in 2018 in an apparent networking mission.
Just as with our first “Notes” on O’Toole, this article is not an attempt at a comprehensive biography of O’Toole, or even an exhaustive account of his racist and antisemitic organizing. Our aim is to synthesize existing documentation on O’Toole—scattered around multiple sources—and to add relevant findings from our own research. We hope this provides readers with a clearer picture of O’Toole’s white nationalist campaigning over the decades.
On Saturday, August 17, 2024, three white nationalists held a demonstration in Dawsonville, Georgia. The trio displayed signs promoting racial “loyalty” and alleging that white people are being “replaced.” The theme of their demonstration—“the great replacement”—is a racist conspiracy theory which has inspired mass shootings. An onlooker photographed the three demonstrators, and the images were posted to Reddit later that day.
August 17, 2024 demonstration in Dawsonville. Photos from Reddit.
A Reddit commenter correctly identified one of the racist demonstrators as Stuart Nicholas DiNenno (born 1959) of Chamblee, Georgia. Through his posts on Reddit and elsewhere, DiNenno confirmed that he was involved in the demonstration. He was clearly the public face of this event. The signs displayed by the white nationalists featured a URL for DiNenno’s website, which advocates for a racist version of Christianity known as “Kinism.”
On the morning of April 30th, 2022 a coalition of civil rights organizations, local community civic action groups, leftist groups, street medics, armed security, antifascists, and other autonomous individuals gathered at a gazebo in downtown Stone Mountain, Georgia. They all shared a common goal: to march on and directly confront the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a racist organization rallying to celebrate “Confederate Memorial Day” at the “Memorial Lawn” inside nearby Stone Mountain Park.
Protesters give the finger to white power leader Sam Dickson
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.
Tommy Benton
Terry England
Alan Powell
Rick Williams
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.
Jeff Mullis
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.
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.
Update 9/25/2020, afternoon: The main organizer for the rally is telling supporters on MeWe that he’s backing out.
Update 9/25/2020: The “Stone Mountain Redux” Facebook group has been removed.
Organizing on a secret Facebook group, far-Right adherents are planning an armed convoy in Georgia on Saturday, September 26.
Stone Mountain, August 15, 2020
The “Stone Mountain Redux” Facebook group is operated by Eric Braden in south Texas who also uses a Facebook account named “Cannon Hinton”. The “Hinton” alias is a reference to a young murder victim whose name has been hijacked by white nationalists, against the wishes of their grieving family. Braden / “Hinton” claims to be an Army veteran. He promoted and allegedly attended the armed far-Right / anti-Black Lives Matter rally at Stone Mountain on August 15. As “Cannon Hinton” he also wrote that he attended a recent militia protest in Louisville, Kentucky.
Eric Braden chats online with white nationalist Jan Dupree before August 15 rally in now-deleted Facebook group.
A second organizer for the “Stone Mountain” redux Facebook group is Corbin Waltering of Idaho, who runs a second Facebook profile under the name “Thomas Stonewall Jackson”. Waltering livestreamed from a militia anti-BLM counter-protest in Louisville, Kentucky on September 5.
Photo from Louisville, Kentucky, September 5, 2020, featuring Dylan Stevens AKA “The Angry Viking”
The main motivation for the September 26 armed convoy and sneak rally is to compensate for August 15 at Stone Mountain. On that day, assorted militiamen, neo-Confederates, anti-Black Lives Matter protesters, and white nationalists rallied in the community of Stone Mountain outside Atlanta. Their rally was intended to take place in nearby Stone Mountain Park, but the Park announced the evening before that it would close that day to thwart the unpermitted rally. Gathering instead in the nearby community of Stone Mountain, the far-Right were outnumbered by anti-racist counter-protesters.
“Stone Mountain Redux” now aims to hold an armed convoy and to covertly rally in or near Stone Mountain. As messages in the secret Facebook group reveal, organizers will assemble at a private park or land, and then move to one or more points of interest. One “Redux” organizer has stated that they will not pay to enter the Park itself, although this may be a lie or an attempt at diversion. One possible scenario is the armed far-Right group attempting their display in the community of Stone Mountain or walking into the Park via a pedestrian entrance. It is also possible they will rally further afield, despite the Facebook group’s name.
Kyle Rittenhouse, currently facing murder charges, celebrated in “Stone Mountain Redux”
Although the private Facebook group has almost 300 members, only a portion of these numbers will likely attend the secret event on the day. Waltering’s claim that there will be 400 attendees seems highly inflated. It is likely, however, that some militias are being invited through other channels, not via posts in the Facebook group. The Facebook group’s members list includes several participants from August 15, such as Dusty Rutledge and Glen “Mitch” Simon, as well as the “Confederate States III%” organizers of that day’s fiasco (with one saying they will be preoccupied on the 26th).
While the armed convoy is intended as a show of strength, it is actually a display of weakness. Organizers need to sneak around and try to keep their plans secret, because they know that announcing their plans publicly and in advance will mean they get outnumbered and humiliated. We urge community members in or near Stone Mountain to stay alert on the 26th, since any convoy could target residents for harassment.
Sadly, for as long as carvings glorifying white supremacy remain on Stone Mountain, the monument will attract organized racists and far-Right militants. This in turn may place local community members in harm’s way. Our group aims to reduce this risk by monitoring the planned event and releasing information as we can. To begin, we are leaking discussion and a member’s list from the private “Stone Mountain Redux” group. Please check our social media for updates.
If you have further information on the September 26th sneak rally or its attendees, get in contact.
On January 28th, 2017, white power activists intend to host an “Atlanta Forum” conference to bring together regional members of the Alt-Right and other white nationalists. In an attempt to head them off and disrupt their ability to organize in our city, anti-racists request that venues and event spaces in and around Atlanta be vigilant about bookings for this date.
Original “Atlanta Forum” logo with Confederate and Southern nationalist flags as well as “black sun” far-Right symbol.
The “Atlanta Forum” event was first mentioned on a Southern white nationalist podcast called The Rebel Yell, which is affiliated with The Right Stuff website. “Atlanta Forum” planning seems to have begun in early September of 2016. The organizers claim they have secured a number of speakers. However, they have not listed the event speakers or the venue where the conference will take place. The event website does provide the following:
Date of conference (January 28, 2017)
Time of event (9:00AM – 4:00PM)
Cost of admission ($20 or $14.88 for students)
An email address for “TRS Confederates” (who host “The Rebel Yell” podcast)
We ask that anyone who can obtain additional information about the Atlanta Forum, or who has knowledge of suspicious bookings in or near Atlanta on Jan. 28th, contact Atlanta Antifascists:
email: afainatl [at] riseup [dot] net
phone: (470) 344 – 4868 (voicemail only)
Further Details / Context
The name “The Atlanta Forum” references The London Forum in the U.K., an event series where neo-fascists and members of the “New Right” gather for speeches and networking. This model of pseudo-intellectual speeches coupled with networking has been copied by “The New York Forum” in New York City, a series that is promoted by the racist Counter-Currents Publishing website. A white nationalist “Northwest Forum” had is inaugural meeting in Washington State last year.
The student admission price ($14.88) for the Atlanta Forum uses white supremacist code. The number 14 stands for the “14 words” – “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” – a racist slogan coined by terrorist David Lane. The number 88 is alphanumeric code for “H.H.” or “Heil Hitler.”
Original “Atlanta Forum” logo with Confederate and Southern nationalist flags as well as 