Decades-Old Civil Rights Center Arson Case Sees Breakthrough Arrest
In a long-awaited development, authorities have arrested a suspect linked to the 2019 fire that devastated the Highlander Research and Education Center, a Tennessee hub for social justice and civil rights training. The facility, steeped in history, once welcomed figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Last week, Regan Prater, a 27-year-old with documented ties to white supremacist groups, was apprehended and charged with arson.
According to the Associated Press, Prater’s involvement was uncovered through group chats linked to extremist organizations. In these chats, Prater, using the alias “Rooster,” allegedly detailed the fire’s execution with “a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.”
In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe is Prater whether he set the fire.
“I’m not admitting anything,” the person using the screen name “Rooster” wrote. But he later went on to describe exactly how the fire was set with “a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.”
A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement near the site of the fire. The affidavit describes it as a “triple cross” and says it was also found on one of the firearms used by a shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, about two weeks before the Highlander fire.
Prater’s criminal record includes a prior arson conviction from June 2019, where he set ablaze an adult video store in East Tennessee. This act led to a five-year federal prison sentence and a restitution order of $106,000.
Local activists and community members have long awaited justice for the Highlander fire, a sentiment echoed by Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, a former co-executive director at Highlander. Recalling the aftermath, she shared, “Every time the wind blew, we would see what was left of it go up in flames again, for weeks.”
She further expressed frustration over the lack of updates and clarity from investigators, despite indications of the arsonist’s extremist affiliations. “We were told that it was like finding a needle in the haystack to prove who did it,” she recalled, highlighting the challenges faced during the Trump administration.
Highlander is known as a place where Civil Rights icons such as Rosa Parks and John Lewis received training. Parks attended a workshop there on integration in 1955, about six months before she famously refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She always credited Highlander with helping her become a more determined activist.
Parks returned to Highlander two years later with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the school’s 25th anniversary celebration, where King gave a keynote address on achieving freedom and equality through nonviolence.
First established in Monteagle in 1932 as a center for union organizing, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was among its early supporters.
Highlander’s co-founder and longtime leader, Myles Horton, a white man, created a place that was unique in the Jim Crow South, where activists white and Black could build and strengthen alliances. In his memoir, Congressman Lewis wrote of how eye-opening being at Highlander was.
As the Highlander Research and Education Center approaches its 93rd anniversary, plans are underway to rebuild its administrative office, according to Allyn Steele, a current co-executive director. Despite the challenges, the community remains resilient in its commitment to social justice.
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