The South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
South Dakota’s political leaders are condemning a Nazi demonstration that took place on the Capitol grounds in Pierre on Saturday.
The Department of Public Safety said in a news release that an unlicensed group attempted to stage an unplanned protest on the Capitol grounds. The Highway Patrol asked the group to leave and the march “ended without incident,” the news release said.
Images and videos circulated online of about a dozen people dressed in red and black, with black masks covering their faces, carrying a Nazi flag and unfurling it on the steps of the Capitol. Footage also emerged of a similar march in Deadwood.
On her personal X account (formerly Twitter), Gov. Kristi Noem wrote: “Nazis are not welcome here in South Dakota.”
“We stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she wrote. “We reject all hatred and Nazis.”
US Senator Mike Rounds tweeted: “This is disgusting. This racist behavior has no place in South Dakota or anywhere else.”
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson tweeted about the incident: “This is horrible.”
The march in Pierre is among the latest in a resurgence of in-person demonstrations among white nationalist, neo-Nazi and far-right reactionary groups across the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest annual report on hate and extremism.
“For the first time since 2018, these racist activists, who together form the so-called white power movement, showed up en masse, with 191 demonstrations in 2022 and 143 in 2023,” the report said.
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