Before the “Unite the Right” rally could even begin, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other far-right figures began brawling with large numbers of opposing protesters. They outnumbered, surrounded and scuffled with a small group of anti-racist demonstrators who had come to protest them. The night before the main demonstration, scores of white nationalists drew condemnation as they marched through the empty University of Virginia campus bearing tiki torches and chanting, “Blood and soil!” - an old Nazi slogan - “You will not replace us!” and “White lives matter!” White nationalists and neo-Nazis made plans to travel from around the nation to attend and see movement luminaries such as Richard Spencer, who were proud supporters of the president’s candidacy in 2016 in large part due to his immigration agenda. The statue is one of many Confederate symbols loathed by anti-racism advocates but embraced by many white Southerners, who see them as part of their heritage, as well as by white nationalists, who believe in a separate nation for white people.Īs the date drew nearer in recent weeks, the event became a kind of Woodstock for the far-right. The original reason for Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally was a battle over Charlottesville’s ordered removal of a statue of Robert E. Saturday’s violence involved political forces that have been building on the left and the right for years, as anti-racism activists and white-power advocates have battled each other - on the Internet and increasingly in the streets - over the meaning of the nation’s traumatic racial history and its course for the future. McAuliffe added, “You came here today to hurt people, and you did hurt people.” You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. “I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today,” McAuliffe said in a Saturday evening news conference.
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