The “Make America White Again” campaign billboard hung over a highway near Benton, Tennessee has been taken down after a boycott was organized of Rick Tyler's Whitewater Grill in nearby Ocoee. The independent candidate running for Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District seat had no comment on its removal.
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“THE SIGN IS OFFICIALLY DOWN!!!” reported Amy Hines Woody in a Facebook post after starting a boycott campaign against Tyler, according to Raw Story. “Never should have been there in the first place, but at least it’s gone,” she wrote.
Tyler's website was also taken down.
In an interview with WRCB before the removal, Tyler said he did not hate people of color, but wanted to return to a "1960s, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver time when there were no break-ins; no violent crime; no mass immigration."
Tyler had another sign on a different highway recently which referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech surrounded by confederate flags. The billboard was also taken down after a local uproar.
Current Tennessee Congressman Chuck Fleischmann said, “I totally and unequivocally condemn the billboard and Mr. Tyler’s message and will vigorously fight any form of racism in the 3rd District of Tennessee or anywhere else in the nation,” according to WRCB.