Honky tonk worker, assaulted during so-called Goyim Defense League ‘intimidation tour’, files suit

Deago Buck, an employee of a downtown Nashville bar, has filed a lawsuit against a Neo-Nazi group after group members assaulted him in July 2024. Buck, pictured here, was detained amid the fracas and charged with disorderly conduct. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

A downtown Nashville honky tonk employee filed suit against the Neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League and more than a dozen of its members, after he was assaulted and subjected to racial slurs during the hate-group’s 10-day “intimidation tour” of the city in July. 

Deago Buck, who is of mixed race, was employed at Johnny Cash’s Bar and BBQ when he was beaten, gouged in the eyes and struck by the pole of a swastika flag, in an attack on a public sidewalk the hate group livestreamed.

Buck’s assault was not an isolated incident during the group’s time in Nashville. 

Members of the group assaulted a Jewish man, heckled young Black children, disrupted a Metro Council meeting and accosted numerous passersby while chanting “Sieg Heil,” “f— the Jews” and “white f— power” while throwing Nazi salutes, instances that were widely reported in local news media at the time

Brought by attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the suit alleges the group violated the federal Ku Klux Klan Act and accuses it of acts of battery, assault and harassment. 

The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Middle District of Tennessee, seeks a ruling the group violated Buck’s rights and an injunction blocking the group from future violations.