What happened in Charlottesville?
So, what happened in Charlottesville?
In mid-August, a movement, the Alt-Right planned to have a rally to assert themselves as a real movement, and to bring their mostly online movement to a real, physical space. This rally was called “Unite the Right” and was organized by Jason Kessler. The group consists of Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other organizations, whose goals are all to reassert white greatness and to restore the country to its white owners. It began early on Friday, August 11th with protesters gathering in public spaces around the city, culminating later that day with the infamous “Torch Walk”. The Torch Walk consisted of hundreds of the mostly white men marching and chanting racist statements like “Jews will not replace us”, “blood and soil” (a Nazi slogan declaring the rights of an racially-defined populace — the blood — and their natural right to a specific land — the soil.) and “white lives matter”.
The next day, Saturday, August 12th, began with hordes of Nazis and white supremacists attempting to gather at Emancipation Park to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. When police intervened and refused to allow them to gather at the location due to the ensuing chaos, the group reverted to their alternate location, McIntire Park. In the surrounding areas, groups of counter-protesters were gathering. These people were protesting the presence of Nazis, fascists and white supremacists in their city; some identified as Antifa — a shorthand for Anti-Fascist. One of these groups was standing along sidewalks in a pedestrian mall complex about half a mile from Emancipation Park. Around 1:45 pm, a car deliberately plowed into this group of protesters, injuring over 38 people and killing one protester, Heather Heyer. The driver was James Alex Fields Jr. These are the basic events of the rally. Further analysis can be found in the pages detailing the events of Friday and Saturday.
Here is the link to a wikipedia page that provides further information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally
