A far-right group known as “Return to the Land” (RTTL) has announced plans to build a segregated, whites-only rural village near Springfield, Missouri. The project is described as an expansion of RTTL’s 160-acre Arkansas settlement and is explicitly intended for people of “European ancestry” with “traditional views." Organizers make no secret of their goal to create a self-contained white Christian community: co-founder Eric Orwoll tells local media, “We want to ensure that White Americans who value their ancestry will have the ability to live among like-minded people…regardless of demographic changes."
.Reports say the group is exploring land north of the Arkansas Ozarks, in the Springfield, MO area, and eventually hopes to establish similar enclaves across the U.S.. RTTL, founded in 2023 by Orwoll and fellow ethno-nationalists, styles itself as a “private membership association” for white, conservative families. The group’s website explicitly states that members must share “European ancestry” and “traditional values,” and in practice it only admits white Americans – excluding Jews, Muslims, LGBT+ people and others – after a strict vetting process (even requiring an ethnicity video call). Its mission statement boasts of creating “strong families with common ancestry” in a rural setting and building a “decentralized movement” of like-minded communities. In Orwoll’s own words: “We seek to create a decentralized movement, formed of various individuals and societies returning to the land…refusing to lower our standards”.
The group says it deliberately chose Arkansas for its “affordable land, natural resources, and…predominantly white population." In Arkansas the group’s “whites-only” village already resembles a small all-white town. The first RTTL settlement spans roughly 150 acres and includes about 40 residents living in newly built cabins, with shared roads, wells, a community center and even a schoolhouse. A second site was established nearby in early 2024, and more are planned. Residents reportedly each own “shares” in an LLC that holds the land, but critics say RTTL’s racial admissions policy – effectively reserving housing only for whites – violates the spirit of federal and state fair housing laws. Orwoll openly refers to the community as a “fortress for the white race” and has thanked members in a video for helping “build a white nation."
Legal, Political and Public Reactions
The planned Missouri community has drawn swift condemnation from civil rights advocates and officials. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) has launched an investigation of RTTL, declaring that “racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society” and warning the group’s plans raise “all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns." The Arkansas NAACP chapter president echoed the sentiment, saying “we don’t need to get back to the Jim Crow era…no one should be discriminated against because of their skin color."
The Anti-Defamation League likewise blasted the scheme, calling it an attempt to revive “discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation” and urging enforcement of fair housing laws. Missouri political leaders are also alarmed. State Democratic Party spokeswoman Chelsea Rodriguez warned that “Missouri families are fed up with the fringe extremism” and that any group promoting hatred “shouldn’t expect to be embraced” in Springfield or elsewhere.
The ADL’s regional director Lindsay Friedmann explicitly urged Missouri and Arkansas officials to use laws like the federal Fair Housing Act (1968) and state anti-discrimination statutes to keep housing open to all: “We urge the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission, local elected officials, and law enforcement to act swiftly to ensure that…Arkansas remains a welcome and inclusive community, not a refuge for intolerance and exclusion,” she said. In short, civil rights groups demand that this plan be halted as soon as possible.
Historical Context: A Segregated Past
Missouri and the nation remember a painful history of housing segregation. For decades into the mid-20th century, many U.S. towns and neighborhoods explicitly barred non-white residents. White homeowners’ associations routinely inserted race-based covenants in property deeds to prevent Black families from moving in – a practice the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948).
Still, informal redlining and sundown towns kept segregation alive long after that. It took the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act) to ban discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of housing on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. Those landmark laws reflect the nation’s judgment that separate housing by race is intolerable. Yet RTTL’s proposal seeks to revive precisely the old Jim Crow logic: an all-white enclave carved out by deed and membership rules.
Constitutional and Civil Rights Implications
Legal experts say RTTL’s strategy of calling itself a “private membership association” cannot override federal and state civil rights laws. The 13th and 14th Amendments – and statutes like 42 U.S.C. §1982 (the Civil Rights Act of 1866) – guarantee that all citizens, regardless of race, have equal rights to buy, sell, and own property. In Jones v. Mayer (1968), the Supreme Court held that these rights protect private home sales and rentals; racial exclusion in housing is unlawful “whether by private individuals or [the] government."
Likewise the federal Fair Housing Act and most state fair-housing laws leave no carve-out for racially exclusive developments. In short, courts have repeatedly ruled that private race-based segregation in neighborhoods cannot stand. RTTL’s lawyers may hope “freedom of association” shields them, but the law has rarely allowed racial discrimination to survive mere contractual labeling. If RTTL attempts to enforce all-white residency, it almost certainly will face lawsuits and enforcement actions for violating 20th-century civil rights protections.
PRO Stance and Youth Mobilization
The People’s Rights Organization (PRO) condemns this whites-only community plan as a blatant violation of civil rights and American principles. We remind everyone that equal rights to housing have been enshrined in law for decades – from the 14th Amendment and Shelley v. Kraemer to the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Racism has no place in Missouri or anywhere, and we will not stand by while fringe extremists try to resurrect segregation. PRO calls on young people and all citizens to speak out loudly: attend town meetings, contact representatives, join or organize protests and social-media campaigns, and support groups that promote inclusion. History shows that discrimination fades only when people demand justice. Now is the time for a new generation to stand up for equal rights – to make clear that this plan will never become reality. Together, youth activism and civic pressure can protect Missouri’s communities from this hateful venture.
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