Group protests Lee monument removal
RICHMOND, Va. — Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a group carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument.
“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia.
Spencer was in Charlottesville to protest a City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A court injunction has halted the removal for six months.
At the second rally, dozens of torch-bearing protesters gathered in a city park in the evening and chanted “You will not replace us” and “Russia is our friend,” local television footage shows.
The evening protest was short-lived. About 10 minutes into it, an altercation between Spencer’s group and counterprotesters drew police to the scene, and the crowd quickly dispersed, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.
The statue has become a rallying cry for a Republican running for Virginia governor this year, Corey Stewart, who was chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Virginia and chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
The rallies drew condemnation from three other contenders for governor: Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie and two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and former Congressman Tom Perriello.