Car Hits Crowd After White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville Ends in Violence
After calling for the “swift restoration of law and order,” he offered a call for unity among Americans of “all races, creeds and colors.”
The demonstration, which both organizers and critics had said was the largest gathering of white nationalists in recent years, was organized to protest the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park
that once bore the name of the Confederate general, but was renamed Emancipation Park.
The governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville on Saturday as white nationalists clashed with counterprotesters
for the second day in a row over a plan to remove the statue of a Confederate general from a city park.
Waving Confederate flags, chanting Nazi-era slogans, wearing helmets
and carrying shields, the white nationalists converged on the Lee statue and began chanting phrases like “You will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us.”
Hundreds of counterprotesters — religious leaders, Black Lives Matter activists
and anti-fascist groups known as “antifa” — quickly surrounded the crowd, singing spirituals, chanting and carrying their own signs.
As a photographer took pictures, one of them, who gave his name only as Ted because he said he might want to run for political office some day, said he was from Missouri,
and added, “I’m tired of seeing white people pushed around.”
But by 11 a.m., after both sides had made their way to Emancipation Park, the scene had exploded into taunting, shoving and outright brawling.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Violence erupted on Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists had gathered here for a rally
and clashed with counterprotesters, resulting in at least one death and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.