Utah rallies denounce Charlottesville violence

SALT LAKE CITY — More than a thousand people demonstrated in Salt Lake City on Monday night to denounce violence, hatred and the white supremacists that held a weekend rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that devolved into violence.

A boisterous crowd descended on Salt Lake City Hall to hear several state lawmakers, social justice activists and others call out hate groups and urge white people in particular, to speak out against racism.

The rally followed a smaller event at the state Capitol, where elected officials called for unity.

The gatherings were among many anti-racism and solidarity rallies held around the country after violence erupted in Virginia on Saturday. Neo-nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville to oppose plans to remove a statue of slave-owning Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds of counter protesters took to the streets, which led to clashes and fights. A car rammed into a peaceful crowd of counter protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

In Utah, public officials and activists called the attacks sickening and un-american.

U.S. Rep. Mia Love spoke to a group of about 200, including Democratic and Republican state officials, early Monday evening.

Love, the first black Republican woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, said told a story about her first job in which she gave swim lessons to children. One of her students told Love he liked her but that his parents didn’t because she was black.

Speakers at the Capitol event urged unity and bipartisanship.