A Tennessee man connected to white supremacist groups admitted Monday to deliberately setting fire to a historic civil rights training facility, according to federal court documents.
Regan Prater entered guilty pleas for the arson that burned down an office at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. He also admitted to trying to assist the terrorist organization Hezbollah by attempting to provide “a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel,” court records show.
Prater is scheduled to receive his sentence on September 9 in Knoxville. His public defender has not responded to requests for comment.
Authorities arrested Prater in April following the March 2019 arson, more than six years after the incident occurred. Federal investigators connected him to the crime through his activity in online chat groups linked to white supremacist organizations, according to court filings. When questioned by another user in a private message about whether he started the fire, the person believed to be Prater responded:
“I’m not admitting anything,” wrote someone using the username ‘Rooster.’ However, he proceeded to detail how the fire was started using “a sparkler bomb and some Napalm.”
Investigators discovered a white supremacist symbol spray-painted near where the fire occurred. The court documents identify it as a “triple cross,” the same marking found on weapons used by the gunman who murdered 51 people at New Zealand mosques on March 15, 2019, approximately two weeks before the Highlander incident.
Originally facing a single arson charge filed in 2025, Prater’s case was updated in February to include the terrorism-related charge involving Hezbollah. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors agreed that a maximum sentence of 20 years would be fitting.
This isn’t Prater’s first arson conviction. He previously received a five-year federal prison term for burning down an adult entertainment store in East Tennessee in June 2019. He was ordered to pay $106,000 in damages for that crime. Investigators linked him to that fire through a cellphone found at the scene, which contained video footage of someone inside the store igniting an accelerant.
The Highlander center holds significant importance in civil rights history as a training ground for legendary activists including Rosa Parks and John Lewis. Parks participated in an integration workshop there in 1955, roughly six months before her historic bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. She consistently acknowledged that Highlander strengthened her resolve as an activist.
Two years following her workshop, Parks returned to Highlander alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the organization’s 25th anniversary, where King delivered a keynote speech about achieving freedom and equality through peaceful resistance.
The fire erupted in the early morning hours of March 29, 2019. While no injuries occurred, the blaze destroyed decades of irreplaceable historical materials, including artifacts, speeches, and documents spanning multiple eras of the Civil Rights Movement.
