White-nationalist rally in Washington winds down before it begins as rain falls

Counterprotesters line the street at Lafayette Square Park with the White House in the background in Washington D.C. on Sunday.

When a few dozen people from the Unite the Right rally arrived, counter-protesters yelled “Shame! Shame!” and “Nazis Go Home!”

Many anti-racism activists began the afternoon at Freedom Plaza, blocks from the White House. They rallied before the white nationalists arrived, with a series of speeches, poems, music and criticism of Trump. There were signs with messages like “Unite Against Hate” and “Racist-in-chief.”

Kerbie Joseph led the crowd in chants against racism and fascism, urging people to “fight back” and stand together to demand a more just society. “We know what that White House represents,” Joseph said through the microphone. “We know this system is against us.”

Kim Sienkiewicz, 51, a reading specialist from Bethesda, Md., said she bought her family Black Lives Matter Tshirts last year after Trump’s election, which they wore at the rally.

“I’m here because I deplore racism,” Sienkiewicz said. “The racism and fascism we see on the rise now has always been here, but this president has made them think it’s OK. We need to drive this back into the shadows.”

Jason Kessler, the organizer of the white rights protest and the ill-fated 2017 event in Charlottesville described the counterprotesters as intolerant.

“This is a pretty moderate demonstration,” Kessler said of the nationalists who joined him. “Is this racism epidemic a real thing or is it made up to control people?”

In August 2017, white supremacist demonstrators and counterprotesters squared off in violent clashes in Charlottesville, site of the University of Virginia. The conflict culminated in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, when James Alex Fields Jr., whose social media accounts included posts espousing white supremacy, purposely drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.