RAVENDEN, ARKANSAS — A white separatist organization is seeking to expand its whites-only housing model across the Ozarks, Appalachia and the South while defending its membership restrictions against a federal civil rights lawsuit.
Return to the Land established its first 160-acre settlement near Ravenden in 2023. Approximately 40 people now live there, including about a dozen children. The organization says it creates communities for people of European ancestry and screens applicants based on their racial, religious and cultural backgrounds.
The group operates through a private membership association connected to a for-profit company. Its leaders contend that this structure permits them to select residents despite federal fair-housing protections. Legal experts dispute that interpretation, noting that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibits racial discrimination in property transactions without exceptions for private associations.
A federal lawsuit alleges that Return to the Land rejected Michelle Walker, a Christian woman with Russian-Jewish ancestry, after learning she was married to a Black man and had biracial children.
Founder Eric Orwoll has publicly identified as a white identitarian and made approving references to Adolf Hitler. The group is raising money for additional settlements and says work has started on a second Arkansas location.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office said it began reviewing the organization after receiving complaints but had no investigative update.
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