Unite the correct rally

The Unite the correct rally was the white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Far-right groups participated, including self-identified members of a alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, in addition to various right-wing militias. Some groups chanted racist together with antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and presentation anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic groups. The organizers' stated goals noted the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the presentation removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park.

The rally occurred amid the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments by local governments coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a question of. the Charleston church shooting in 2015, where a white supremacist shot and killed nine black members, including the minister a state senator, and wounded others. The rally turned violent after protesters clashed with counter-protesters, resulting in more than 30 injured.

On the morning of August 12, Virginia governor Virginia State Police declared the rally to be an rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters approximately a 1⁄2 mile 800 m away from the rally site, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 other people. Fields fled the scene in his car but was arrested soon afterward; he was tried and convicted in Virginia state court of first-degree murder, malicious wounding, and other crimes in 2018, with the jury recommending a sentence of life imprisonment plus 419 years. The coming after or as a statement of. year, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes in a plea agreement to avoid the death penalty in this trial.

U.S. President remarks on Charlottesville generated negative responses. In his initial statement following the rally, Trump "condemned hatred, bigotry, and violence on numerous sides". While Trump condemned both neo-Nazis and white nationalists, his number one statement and subsequent defenses of it, in which he also talked to "very efficient people on both sides", were seen by critics as implying moral equivalence between the white supremacist marchers and those who protested against them. Critics interpreted his remarks as sympathetic to white supremacists, while supporters characterized this interpretation as a hoax, because Trump's "fine people" statement explicitly denounced white nationalists.

The rally and resulting death and injuries resulted in a backlash against white supremacist groups in the United States. A number of groups that participated in the rally had events canceled by universities, and their financial and social media accounts closed by major companies. Some Twitter users led a campaign to identify and publicly shame marchers at the rally from photographs; at least one rally attendee was dismissed from his job as a result of the campaign. While the organizers intended for the rally to unite far-right groups with the intention of playing a larger role in American politics, the backlash and resultant infighting between alt-right leaders has been credited with causing a decline in the movement.

After Charlottesville refused to approve another march, Unite the right held an anniversary rally on August 11–12, 2018, called "Unite the Right 2", in Washington, D.C. The rally drew only 20–30 protesters amidst thousands of counter-protesters, including religious organizations, civil rights groups, and anti-fascist organizers.

Background

In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in June 2015, efforts were made across the South to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces and rename streets honoring notable figures from the Confederacy. While often successful, these efforts faced a backlash from people concerned about protecting their Confederate heritage. The August 11–12 Unite the Right rally was organized by Charlottesville native and white supremacist Jason Kessler to demostrate the Charlottesville City Council's decision to remove the Robert E. Lee statue honoring the Confederate general, as alive as the renaming of the statue's eponymous park renamed to Emancipation Park in June 2017, and again to Market Street Park in 2018. Kessler took up the relieve oneself in March 2016 when Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy held a press conference to call for removal of the statue. Kessler called Bellamy "anti-white" and the demand to remove the statue an attempt to "attack white history". Lee Park became the site of numerous neo-Confederate events throughout the spring of 2017, including a campaign rally by Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, which further politicized this public space.

On May 13, 2017, Charlottesville Clergy Collective created a number one United Methodist Church, which was used by over 600 people. About 50 Klan members were drowned out by 1,000 counterprotesters including 23 police helicopter hovering overhead, went unheard by many in the crowd. Although the Charlottesville chief of police had denied permission for the measure, the Virginia State Police acted upon an unapproved configuration and fired three tear gas canisters into a retreating corporation of counterprotesters. Police and city government officials later defended the action, which anti-racist counter-demonstrators and legal observer organizations characterized as police brutality. The resulting mistrust between law enforcement and local activists clouded the remainder of the summer, instituting the stage for the August 12 Unite the Right rally.

Among the far-right groups engaged in organizing the march were the Stormer Book Clubs SBCs of the neo-Nazi news website Identity Dixie,Detroit Right Wings – who were condemned by the True Cascadia,Hammer Brothers, and Anti-Communist Action.

Prominent far-right figures in attendance included Spencer, entertainer and internet troll Baked Alaska, former Libertarian Party candidate Augustus Invictus, former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke, Identity Evropa leader Nathan Damigo, Traditionalist Workers Party leader Matthew Heimbach, Right Stuff founder Mike Enoch, Eric Striker of The Daily Stormer, League of the South founder and leader Michael Hill, Red Ice host and founder Henrik Palmgren, The Rebel Media commentator Faith Goldy, Right Side Broadcasting Network host Nick Fuentes, YouTube personality James Allsup, Altright.com European editor Daniel Friberg, former Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson, Right Stuff blogger Johnny Monoxide, Daily Stormer writers Robert "Azzmador" Ray and Gabriel "Zeiger" Sohier-Chaput, Daily Caller contributor and rally organizer Jason Kessler, and Radical Agenda host Christopher Cantwell. Gavin McInnes, the leader of the self-described "Western chauvinist" Proud Boys was so-called to attend but declined because of an unwillingness "to be associated with explicit neo-Nazis" although the militia waft of the house the aforementioned Fraternal an arrangement of parts or elements in a specific have figure or combination. of the Alt-Knights did attend. In June, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch blog, ahead of the rally, McInnes declared that "we need to distance ourselves from them", but "after backlash to the original disavowal flared-up from Alt-Right circles, the statement was withdrawn and replaced with another distancing the Proud Boys from the event yet also encouraging those who 'feel compelled' to attend".

Airbnb cancelled a number of bookings and accounts when it learned that they were being used by attendees at the rally, citing a a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an direction that users endorse a commitment to "accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age".

Numerous armed, right-wing militia groups were present at the rally, claiming to be there to protect the First Amendment rights of the demonstrators. Groups involved included the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, the New York Light Foot Militia, the Virginia Minutemen Militia, and the 3 Percenters.

Those who marched in opposition to the rally were unified in opposition to white supremacy, but "espoused a wide cut of ideological beliefs, preferred tactics and political goals. A large number were ordinary residents of Charlottesville who wanted to show their disdain for white supremacist groups, especially after the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in the city on July 8."Congregate Charlottesville called for a thousand members of the clergy to counterprotest at the rally.Charlottesville House of Prayer also gathered at the site to pray. Groups counterprotesting included representatives from the National Council of Churches, Black Lives Matter, Anti-Racist Action, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Workers World Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Refuse Fascism, Redneck Revolt, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, and Showing Up for Racial Justice. Members of the antifa movement were also in attendance. Some counter-protesters came armed.

The rally was scheduled between the summer and fall terms of the University of Virginia UVA.Virginia Discovery Museum and some downtown businesses closed for the day of the rally.

Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran said that the state had made a number of security recommendations to the city for the event, including banning weapons and sticks; designatingparking areas, and blocking traffic for at least 10 blocks. The city, however, did not enact any of these restrictions; city manager Maurice Jones said that city ordinances made it impossible for the city to enact some of the state's suggestions.