A Tennessee man who pleaded guilty in April to setting the 2019 fire at the Highlander Research and Education Center has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.
Regan Darby Prater, 28, was sentenced Oct. 21 in federal court to 17.5 years in prison with three years of supervised release afterward. He also was ordered to pay $1,289,000 in restitution, according to a Department of Justice news release.
He pleaded guilty to arson and attempted provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Prater admitted in his guilty plea to driving from his home in Tullahoma to the Highlander Center in New Market on March 29, 2019, where he ignited a napalm-based incendiary device called a "sparkler bomb." The weapon destroyed one of
the nonprofit research center's administrative buildings, causing over $1.2 million in damages.
The Highlander Center is an internationally known social justice organization, with a long history of training civil rights activists at its two locations, and hosted visits by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
Officials from the center at the time said the fire destroyed decades of historic documents, speeches, artifacts and memorabilia, including from the Civil Rights Movement.
Prior to detonating the device, Prater spray-painted the symbol of the Iron Guard, a 1930s paramilitary arm of the Romanian Nazi Party, in the center's parking lot. The symbol also was engraved on the weapon used in the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, just two weeks before the arson.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Highlander Center arsonist sentenced to 17 years in prison and must pay $1.2M
