RICHMOND – A federal court ordered Patriot Front, its leader–Thomas Rousseau–and Patriot Front members William Ring and Jacob Brown to pay more than $470,000 in a high-profile case filed after members of Patriot Front vandalized and destroyed a mural honoring Black tennis legend and humanitarian Arthur Ashe in Ashe’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the suit in 2022 on behalf of residents of Battery Park, a diverse, majority-Black Richmond neighborhood where Ashe himself learned to play tennis.
Patriot Front calls for the formation of a white ethnostate. Patriot Front promotes the exclusionary ideology that Europeans conquered America and bequeathed it to their descendants, and no one else. Patriot Front announces its presence through vandalism, among other activities, spray painting its logos and placing its stickers on public and private property around the country.
The plaintiffs are also represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, and the Paul Weiss Center to Combat Hate.
Len Kamdang, director of the Criminal Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said: “This is a victory for justice and for accountability against hate. The ruling sends a strong message: Attacks on Black people and the communities they live in will not go unchecked. Being ordered to pay damages is only part of why the ruling is so important. The judge’s decision will bolster efforts to disrupt these networks and prevent future attacks.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia and includes claims for conspiracy to violate civil rights under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 as well as a claim of intimidation based on racial animosity under Virginia state law. The court found Defendants liable on all counts.
Patriot Front’s destruction of the mural affected the community deeply. One plaintiff removed Black Lives Matter signs from their home, took a self-defense class, and got a first responder medic certification to be prepared to provide medical aid to family members, all because Patriot Front’s actions made them feel unsafe in their own neighborhood. Another plaintiff’s child suffered from “considerable stress and anxiety” and the plaintiff reported that Patriot Front’s hateful act transformed the park, which was once “an important locus of release and joy,” into “a scary place” that the family avoided.
The vandalism was planned at an official Patriot Front network meeting on October 12, 2021, and conducted in accordance with Patriot Front policies shortly thereafter. While vandalizing the mural, defendants used racial slurs, leading the court to conclude that, “racial animus against Black individuals and their supporters animated Defendants’ conduct.”
The Lawyers’ Committee has a long track record of combatting hate and runs the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate. The organization was part of the legal team that won a $1 million punitive damages award against the Proud Boys for their vandalism of a historically Black church in Washington, D.C.
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Additional Information: Court orders available upon request.
Contact: press@lawyerscommittee.org
