Nationalists rally at Lincoln Memorial

Park service reports no arrests or violence during right-wing white event

washington» A group of white nationalists and right-wing activists descended on one of America’s greatest venues for political speech Sunday — the area in front of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, near where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of his dream — and it was essentially just another day in Washington, D.C.

Some on both the right and left had voiced fears of violence. But the National Park Service reported no arrests or significant incidents. Instead the day saw some speechifying, some counterprogramming, some counterprotesting and a searing argument about free speech and political correctness.

The Lincoln Memorial rally was headlined by white nationalist Richard Spencer.

“There has been an awakening,” Spencer, dressed in a light-colored suit with a pocket square, said.

Some in the crowd waved Confederate or green “Kek” flags identified with what is sometimes called the altright. More than one member of Vanguard America, a group that left white nationalist fliers at the University of Maryland last year, donned masks.

“We are people,” said Nathan Damigo of the group Identity Europa. “We have a connection to our race, our culture and our identity.”

The gathering, dubbed the “Rally for Free Speech,” was held as another group of conservatives Spencer criticized as “losers and freaks” held a competing event in front of the White House, seeking to distance themselves from Spencer’s racial rhetoric. Spencer had referred to them as “altlite.”

The second rally was emceed by conservative provocateur Jack Posobiec, who recently disrupted a New York production of “Julius Caesar” that featured the bloody slaying of a Trump-like Caesar.