Suit targets whites-only Arkansas community over applicant rejected for Jewish roots, Black husband

A white supremacist group faces a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a real estate broker who says she was barred from purchasing property in their rural Arkansas community because of her Jewish ancestry, Black husband and biracial children.

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Michelle Walker, who is also white and Christian, alleges in her complaint that the Return to the Land organization rejected her application because it “is explicitly attempting to establish an all-white community.”

“Its founders believe that white people are genetically superior to other races, advance the view that Jewish people are engaged in a plot to eliminate the white race, and advocate for segregated white communities for the purpose of creating a separate all-white nation state that will help avoid ‘white genocide,’” her complaint says.

Return to the Land did not immediately respond to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the Eastern District of Arkansas, Northern Division.

In a interview with NBC News in July, group co-founder Eric Orwoll made it clear that only white people are welcome in their 40-member community in Ravenden, Arkansas.

“What we’ve done here is establish a place where we have control over who our neighbors are,” Orwoll said. “And that is just for the sake of preserving, you know, our culture ... white American culture.”

Orwoll characterized the policy as “free association,” not segregation. On its website , Return to the Land describes itself a “private membership association (PMA) for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry.”

Walker’s attorney, Reed Colfax, argued Return to the Land is a racist organization in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws dating to 1866.

“Return to the Land’s actions constitute blatant and brazen violations of long-standing federal and state fair housing laws,” Reed Colfax said in a statement posted on the Legal Defense Fund website. “Ms. Walker has been deprived of her housing and civil rights, including the right to purchase land and build housing.”

Walker, a real estate broker in and around St. Louis, Missouri, said in the complaint that she learned last summer that the group was selling land in the Ozarks, “an area where she occasionally vacationed.” She was drawn to the listing partly because the asking price was unusually low, and she decided to apply, citing both the investment potential and other possibilities the land offered.

During the application process, Walker said, she encountered “a series of questions about her ancestry and religion.” She disclosed that her father’s family had arrived in the U.S. in the 1600s and that her mother’s family were Russian Jewish immigrants. She noted that her husband is of Irish and African descent and that her children shared their parents’ mixed racial heritage.

In response to a question about her religion, Walker stated flatly: “I am a Christian. I believe Jesus died for my sins and through believing in him, I will have a heavenly eternal life.”

In the complaint, Walker said she “was surprised to see the ancestry and religion questions on the application, which she understood as clearly violating federal and state fair housing laws prohibiting consideration of race and religion in a land-sale decision.”

Walker said she recognized the ancestry and religion questions as apparent violations of federal and state fair housing laws, but completed the application anyway, hoping the organization would ultimately comply with the law. She was later interviewed by a Return to the Land member who asked whether she belonged to “any other white nationalist organizations.”

After a month passed without word, Walker called the Return to the Land and was told “she should not expect her application to be approved.”

“Ms. Walker never received any further communication from Defendants,” the complaint says. Her application portal now reads that she was not accepted because she was “not an ideal fit” for the community.