ATLANTA — The white nationalist and provocateur Richard Spencer had left the University of Florida on Oct. 19 when the day’s most serious trouble erupted just beyond the campus.
Three of Mr. Spencer’s disciples from Texas pulled up in a car alongside a group of anti-Spencer demonstrators, and soon, the police said, one of the three began to chant “Heil Hitler.” After a protester hit the car with a baton, one of the Texas men pulled out a handgun and fired a shot.
No one was injured, but the episode underscored a reality of the alt-right movement: that it draws energy, and some of its most violent support, from out-of-town sympathizers who regularly travel hundreds of miles to public events starring figures like Mr. Spencer.
The roadshow aspect of these events — one of which took place on Saturday in Tennessee — makes it hard to determine just how broad the movement is. It also challenges the law enforcement officials who must police rancorous rallies filled with unfamiliar faces from far away.
“The movement has fundamentally changed, since people want to come to these to meet others, to feel a part of the team, so to speak, and to also demonstrate to the outside world that this a real movement and that we want a place at the table,” Mr. Spencer said in an interview on Friday. “Activism is not purely the domain of the left.”
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