Unite the Right rally
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Unite the Right rally (also known as the Charlottesville rally) was a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States from August 11–12, 2017, to oppose the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park, which itself was renamed from Lee Park two months earlier. Protesters included white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, and militias. Some of the marchers carried semi-automatic rifles, swastikas, Confederate battle flags, anti-Semitic banners, or "Trump/Pence" signs. The rally occurred amidst the backdrop of controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments throughout the country in response to the Charleston church shooting in 2015.
The event turned violent after protesters clashed with counterprotesters, leaving 14 injured. On the morning of August 12, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency stating that public safety could not be safeguarded without additional powers. Within an hour, the Virginia State Police declared the assembly to be unlawful. Two hours later, a man linked to white-supremacist groups rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters about a half-mile away from the rally site, killing one person and injuring 19. Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the attack as domestic terrorism, and authorities began a civil rights investigation to determine if he will be tried in court under hate crime statutes.
In his initial statement on the rally, U.S. President Donald Trump did not denounce white nationalists by name, instead blaming "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides. Many sides". His statement and his subsequent defenses of it were criticized as implying moral equivalence between the white supremacist marchers and those who protested against white supremacy.
