Charlottesville protests of 2017 were demonstrations held by white supremacist (also known as white nationalist) groups in Charlottesville , Virginia, in the Southern United States. White supremacists believe that white people are superior to people of other races. In August 2017, a group that included members of the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi groups gathered in Emancipation Park to protest the planned removals of statues of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville and other parts of the United States. Violent skirmishes broke out between some of the demonstrators and antiracist counterprotesters. The protests ended after a white supremacist drove his car into a group of counterprotesters. One woman was killed, and many people were injured. The incident raised discussions about the limits of freedoms of speech and assembly in the United States.
Many supporters of Confederate monuments say that such memorials celebrate the bravery of Southern soldiers and what many consider a noble Southern way of life prior to the American Civil War (1861-1865). But opponents have denounced such monuments as celebrations of treason and the violent oppression of millions of people based on their skin color.
History of Confederate monuments.
From the late 1800’s to the mid-1900’s, many white Americans became resentful of modest civil rights gains for African Americans . Some Southerners organized efforts to portray the Confederate cause as a noble one. Their efforts advanced the idea that disputes over states’ rights , not over slavery , were the main cause of the Civil War. Monuments to Confederate leaders were erected in many parts of the country, and especially in the Southern States.
The 26-foot (8-meter) statue of Robert E. Lee was installed in Charlottesville in 1924. Its unveiling ceremony was attended by Confederate veterans and their descendants. The park was named Lee Park at the time. In 2017, the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the Lee statue and rename the park Emancipation Park. In 2018, following the violent 2017 event, the park was renamed again, to Market Street Park.
Protests and counterprotests.
In May 2017, a group of white supremacists held a demonstration against the removal of the Lee statue. They chanted slogans against African Americans and Jews. In July, white supremacists affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated in Charlottesville’s Justice Park, where they were met by hundreds of antiracist protesters. In August, a number of white-supremacist groups—sometimes collectively known as the “alt-right”—joined to hold demonstrations against the removal of the Lee statue. Organizers called their rally “Unite the Right.”
On the night of Friday, August 11, white supremacists bearing torches marched through the Charlottesville campus of the University of Virginia. The next day, right-wing rallygoers amassed in Emancipation Park. Many of the attendees were heavily armed and carried flags or shields with symbols representing Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan—organizations that have carried out race-based terror campaigns against African Americans, Jews, and other minority groups. The white nationalist group was opposed by a counterprotest consisting of students, church groups, and antifascist demonstrators from a militant left-wing group known as Antifa. Numerous skirmishes occurred between the two sides.
Early in the afternoon of August 12, an Ohio man who had marched with the white supremacists drove his car into a crowd of antiracist demonstrators. The driver—James Alex Fields, Jr.—killed Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old Charlottesville paralegal, and injured many other people. Fields faced both state and federal charges for his crimes. Virginia prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges, and federal authorities filed dozens of hate crime charges against Fields. In December 2018, a Virginia jury found Fields guilty of first-degree murder and a number of other charges. A Virginia judge later sentenced Fields to life in prison, plus 419 years. In March 2019, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crime charges. In a statement, Fields admitted that he had targeted the crowd because of the race, color, or religion of its members. A federal judge later sentenced Fields to life imprisonment for the hate crime charges.
National outcry and presidential response.
The incident provoked a national discussion, with political leaders of both major U.S. parties decrying the violence and the white supremacists’ message. President Donald J. Trump’s initial comments on the incident blamed “many sides” for the violence and did not specifically denounce white supremacists. Trump’s remarks drew severe criticism from many political leaders, including a sizable number of Republicans. On Aug. 14, 2017, Trump stated that “Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs—including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups—that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” The following day, he asserted, “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent.” He went on to say, “There are two sides to a story.”
