Erika Jacobsen White is serving as co-counsel in a federal lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of a young biracial man targeted in a campaign of hate by members of the Goyim Defense League (GDL). The complaint—filed in Tennessee—seeks justice for a series of violent, racist, and antisemitic acts carried out during the GDL’s coordinated hate tour through Nashville in July 2024.
The lawsuit names the GDL, its leadership, and affiliated members, alleging violations of the federal Ku Klux Klan Act, as well as claims of assault, battery, and malicious harassment. The GDL is a known antisemitic and white supremacist organization whose stated mission includes forcibly removing Jewish and Black communities from the United States.
During the group’s hate tour in Nashville, GDL members reportedly paraded through neighborhoods waving swastika flags, shouted obscenities and intimidated people perceived to be of color or Jewish, including a group of young, Black children. In addition, they disrupted a public meeting, littered lawns with antisemitic propaganda, and violently attacked two young men based on their race and Jewish ancestry.
“It is critical in a time when hate is emboldened that we are not intimidated but are instead empowered to seek justice and put an end to terror in our communities,” said Erika Jacobsen White in a press release about the case.
