EVENTS PEACEFUL ONE YEAR AFTER CHARLOTTESVILLE
Speeches and marches mark deadly anniversary.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.» A year after a deadly gathering of far-right extremists in Charlottesville, Va., a few dozen white nationalists marched Sunday across from the White House, their numbers dwarfed by thousands of counterprotesters, while the mother of a woman killed at last summer’s protest said the country continues to face unhealed racial wounds.
The events — largely peaceful though tense at times in Charlottesville and Washington — were part of a day of speeches, vigils and marches marking the anniversary of what was one of the largest gatherings of white nationalists and other far-right extremists in a decade.
In Washington, dozens of police in bright yellow vests formed a tight cordon around the small group of white nationalists, separating them from shouting counterprotesters within view of the White House.
President Donald Trump wasn’t at home — he has been at his golf club in New Jersey for more than a week on a working vacation.
Jason Kessler, the principal organizer of last year’s “Unite the Right” event, led what he called a white civil rights rally in Lafayette Square, directly across the street from the White House.
Kessler said in his permit application that he expected 100 to 400 people to participate, though the number appeared lower. Just before 4 p.m., a contingent of fewer than 30 white nationalists began marching through the streets.
Counterprotesters who assembled ahead of the rally’s scheduled start vastly outnumbered Kessler’s crowd. By midafternoon, more than 1,000 people had already gathered in Freedom Plaza, also near the White House, to oppose Kessler’s demonstration and also march to Lafayette Square.
Makia Green, who represents the Washington branch of Black Lives Matter, told Sunday’s crowd: “We know from experience that ignoring white nationalism doesn’t work.”
By about 5 p.m., those in Kessler’s group packed into white vans and left, escorted by police.
On Aug. 12, 2017, hundreds of neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists descended on Charlottesville, in part to protest over the city’s decision to remove a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park.
In Charlottesville on Sunday, the mother of a woman killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally last summer said there’s much healing to do a year after the violence.
Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, laid flowers at a makeshift memorial at the site of the attack in downtown Charlottesville. With a crowd gathered around her, she thanked them for coming to remember her daughter but also acknowledged the dozens of others injured and the two state troopers killed when a helicopter crashed that day.
“There’s so much healing to do,” Bro said. “We have a huge racial problem in our city and in our country. We have got to fix this or we’ll be right back here in no time.”
The city of Charlottesville said four people were arrested. Two arrests stemmed from a confrontation near a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee where a Spotsylvania, Va., man stopped to salute the statue and a Charlottesville woman confronted him and a physical altercation took place, officials said.