The possibility of a “whites-only” organization from Arkansas expanding into Missouri has inspired bipartisan outrage from state lawmakers and local officials who decry the group as racist and antisemitic.
The private membership association, called Return to the Land, owns 160 acres in northeast Arkansas, according to its website. Jews and non-whites are explicitly banned from membership.
The group’s leader recently said it is exploring the idea of expanding north and building a new enclave in the Springfield area.
“We have the God-given right to form communities according to whatever values we hold dear,” Eric Orwoll, co-founder of Return to the Land, said in a recent social media post, “and the government does not have the right to tell free American citizens what values they have to live according to in their own private lives.”
The idea of a segregated community coming to southwest Missouri was greeted with scorn by both Democratic and Republican legislative leaders from the area.
“Racism in any form is evil and reprehensible,” said House Majority Leader Alex Riley, a Springfield Republican. “Groups engaging in racist conduct are not welcome in Springfield.”
State Rep. Betsy Fogle, a Springfield Democrat, said history has been “very clear on what happens when you stay silent as groups discriminate based on race and discriminate based on whether or not someone is of the Jewish faith. I cannot believe that in 2025 we are retreading this ground.”
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said racial discrimination “has no place in Missouri.”
“Attorney General Bailey is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all citizens,” the statement said. “The landmark Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer, which originated in St. Louis, made clear that government cannot enforce racially discriminatory housing practices, and Missouri will not tolerate efforts to revive them.”
The Springfield City Council and City Manager David Cameron issued a joint statement this week declaring that “there is no place in Springfield, or anywhere, for such a divisive and discriminatory vision.”
“While it is improbable that such a project could legally or practically occur within city limits, silence is not an option,” the statement said. “As a regional leader, we will not stand idly by in the face of attempts to revive outdated, harmful ideologies.”
On its website, Return to the Land its mission is to “separate ourselves from a failing modern society, and we will make positive cultural changes in ourselves and in our ancestral communities.”
It also includes a disclaimer that the group does not engage in the sale or rental of real estate.
Orwoll responded to criticism from Springfield elected officials in his social media post, denying that excluding people of color and Jews should be considered racist.
“We are not a hate group,” he said. “We have never expressed hate towards any ethnic group, racial group or religious group.”
He took umbrage with Fogle calling the group racist, saying: “She wants to call us racists because we prefer being among our own people.”
“It’s not a supremacist group. It’s not a hate group. It’s not even a white nationalist group,” he said. “We are white identitarians. We value our identity and want to preserve it. That’s not hate. That is love for your own people.”
Fogle, who was among the first public officials to condemn Return to the Land’s possible expansion to Missouri, said she has been inundated with “pretty horrific messages and pretty horrific responses” on social media.
But she said she has no intention of being silent.
“It’s my job to make sure I’m using my platform to communicate that there’s no place in Springfield, no place in Missouri, no place in this country for a group who is intentionally leaving behind people who have a different skin color or intentionally leaving behind people of the Jewish faith,” she said. “And I would expect every elected official at every level to use their platform to see the same things.”
Across the state line, the group also drew the ire of Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
The Republican announced his office would open an investigation of the group to ensure its activities didn’t violate state or federal law. That probe, Griffin said in an email to The Independent, has not turned up any illegal activity.
“Racism has no place in a free society,” he said, “but from a legal perspective, we have not seen anything that would indicate any state or federal laws have been broken.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
