Summer rallies in Charlottesville[edit]
On May 13, 2017, white supremacist
Richard Spencer led a rally in Charlottesville to protest the city's plans to remove the statue of Lee. The event involved protesters holding torches near the statue. That same night, a
candlelight counterprotest took place.
[49]
The
Ku Klux Klan held another rally in Charlottesville on July 8.
[50] About 50 Klan members and 1,000 counterprotesters gathered at a loud but nonviolent rally.
[51] David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard, spoke calling the demonstrations a "turning point" saying, "We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back."
[52] In opposition to the rally, the Charlottesville Clergy Collective created a
safe space at
First United Methodist Church, which was used by over 600 people.
[50]
Protesters[edit]
White supremacists clash with police.
Among the far-right groups engaged in organizing the march were the Stormer Book Clubs (SBCs) of the neo-Nazi news website
The Daily Stormer,
[53] The Right Stuff,
[54]the
National Policy Institute,
[55] and four groups that form the
Nationalist Front:
[51] the neo-Confederate
League of the South and Identity Dixie,
[51] the neo-Nazi groups
Traditionalist Worker Party,
[56][57] Vanguard America,
[56] and the
National Socialist Movement.
[51] Other groups involved in the rally were the Ku Klux Klan (specifically the
Loyal White Knights and the Confederate White Knights branches),
[58][21] the
Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights,
[56] the
American Identitarian group
Identity Evropa,
[59] the
Southern California-based fight club Rise Above Movement,
[60][61] the American Guard,
[19] the Detroit Right Wings – misappropriating the name of the
Detroit Red Wings NHL team, which usage was condemned by the team,
[62][63] True Cascadia,
[64]the
Canada-based ARM (Alt-Right
Montreal) and Hammer Brothers,
[65] and
Anti-Communist Action.
[19]
Prominent far-right figures in attendance included
National Policy Institute Chairman and white supremacist
Richard Spencer,
[66]entertainer and internet troll
Baked Alaska,
[66] former
Libertarian Party candidate
Augustus Invictus,
[67] former Ku Klux Klan
Imperial Wizard David Duke,
[68] Identity Evropa leader
Nathan Damigo,
[69] Traditionalist Workers Party leader
Matthew Heimbach,
[66] Right Stuff founder
Mike Enoch,
[66] Eric Striker of
The Daily Stormer,
[70] League of the South founder and leader
Michael Hill,
[9] Red Ice host and founder Henrik Palmgren,
[71] The Rebel Media commentator
Faith Goldy,
[72] Right Side Broadcasting Network host Nick Fuentes,
[73] YouTube personality
James Allsup,
[73] AltRight.com editor
Daniel Friberg,
[74]former
Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson,
[75] Right Stuff blogger Johnny Monoxide,
[76] Daily Stormer writers Robert "Azzmador" Ray and Gabriel "Zeiger" Sohier-Chaput,
[77] Daily Caller contributor and rally organizer
Jason Kessler,
[78] and
Radical Agenda host
Christopher Cantwell.
[79][80] Gavin McInnes, the leader of the self-described "Western chauvinist"
Proud Boys was invited to attend but declined because of an unwillingness "to be associated with explicit neo-Nazis" although the militia wing of the group the aforementioned Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights did attend.
[20] In June, 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".
[81]
Airbnb cancelled a number of bookings and accounts when it learned that they were being used by attendees at the rally, citing a request that users endorse a commitment to "accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age".
[82]
Militias[edit]
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,
[83] the
New York Light Foot Militia,
[84] the Virginia Minutemen Militia,
[85] and the
3 Percenters.
[86]
Part of
Terrorism in the United States,
Antisemitism in the United States and
Neo-Nazism in the United States
Rally participants preparing to enter
Lee Park[
citation needed]in
Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, carrying
Confederate battle flags,
Gadsden flags, and a
Nazi flag
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally
The American Guard and the 3 Percenters I know where in attendance on Saturday.
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