Texas A&M calls off white nationalist rally

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas A&M University late Monday called off a planned white supremacist rally on its campus next month, citing concerns of a “major security risk” following the demonstrations that turned deadly over the weekend in Virginia.

The decision came amid bipartisan pressure from Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature, where lawmakers said protecting free speech was important, but rejecting hate even more so.

A former A&M student named Preston Wiginton had been organizing a “White Lives Matter” rally in College Station, Texas, saying he was inspired by Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., at which a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters, killing at least one and injuring 19.

But the university said it was canceling the event because of “concerns about the safety of its students, faculty, staff, and the public.”

“Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville with the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus,” Texas A&M said in a statement. “Additionally, the daylong event would provide disruption to our class schedules and to student, faculty and staff movement.”

Wiginton said he had invited prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer to address the rally. Spencer spoke at an A&M event in December, when he was met by hundreds of protesters.

Texas A&M noted that it had changed its policy after those protests so that no outside individual or group could reserve campus facilities without the sponsorship of a universitysanctioned organization. It said that “none of the 1,200-plus campus organizations invited Preston Wiginton.”

Will Weissert is an Associated Press writer.