AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
THE father of a white supremacist who took part in the violent Charlottesville race-hate rally has publicly disowned his son.
Pearce Tefft, whose youngest son Peter was pictured at the march, in Virginia, says the young man is no longer welcome at family gatherings.
Mr Tefft said: “I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful and racist rhetoric and actions,”
Writing in an open letter, he added: “I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender, and creed.
“I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal, that we must love each other all the same.” He acknowledged his son had chosen a different direction.
Mr Tefft, 69, of Fargo, North Dakota, insisted he doesn’t know where his son picked up his extremist beliefs. He was initially reluctant to speak about it, but later acknowledged: “It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now.
HATEFUL
“My son is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer. I pray my prodigal son will renounce his hateful beliefs and return home.” Peter Tefft, who describes himself as “a white Christian and 100% prowhite”, was revealed as one of the white nationalists involved in the weekend’s rally on the Twitter page “Yes, You’re Racist”, which exposes bigotry in the US. After his picture was published, Logan Smith, who runs the page, was passed his identity several times. Other relatives of Tefft, believed to be in his late 20s, have also disowned own him. His nephew Jacob Scott said: “Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane internet rabbit-hole and turned into a crazy Nazi. “He scares us all, we don’t feel safe around him and we don’t know how he came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father.” During the riots, Heather Heyer was mown down by a white nationalist in a car. James Fields appeared in court on Monday charged with one count of murder over the death of the 32-year-old and three counts of malicious wounding, as well as one charge of hit-and-run. He is due to appear in court on August 25.