A rally by the Ku Klux Klan and its supporters to protest the Charlottesville city council’s decision to remove a statue honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee encountered a loud and angry counterprotest Saturday afternoon.
Members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Pelham, N.C., near the Virginia border, gathered at Justice Park, situated in a quiet, leafy residential neighborhood in downtown Charlottesville. They shouted “white power” and some wore white robes.
About 30 Klansmen were escorted to and from the rally by police in riot gear who were out on a hot day to separate the rally-goers and approximately 1,000 counterprotesters who greeted them with jeers. Attempts by Klan leaders to address the crowd were repeatedly drowned out by boos and chants. Some of the Klan members arrived armed, carrying handguns in holsters at their belts.
The rally was held about a block away from Emancipation Park – the renamed Lee Park – where the statue of Lee astride a horse still stands. Charlottesville police reported that vandals had painted messages in green and red paint on the statue overnight.
More than 100 officers from the Virginia state police, Albemarle County police and University of Virginia police were prepared to assist Charlottesville police in maintaining order.
After the Klan rally ended, police led several people away in handcuffs after a large group of counterprotesters remained near the vicinity of the park. Police asked those still gathered nearby to disperse. Wearing riot gear and gas masks, the police declared the counterprotesters “an unlawful assembly” and used gas canisters to compel them to leave the area.
Charlottesville, a city of close to 50,000 and home to the University of Virginia, had become increasingly tense as the rally approached. “A CITY ON EDGE” read the front-page headline in the local paper, The Daily Progress, on Saturday.
City leaders organized diversionary events elsewhere in the city and encouraged residents and visitors to not confront the KKK members directly. While many took that advice, others wanted to make sure the rally participants heard their voices.
“It is important for me to be here because the Klan was ignored in the 1920s and they metastasized,” said Jalane Schmidt, a professor at the University of Virginia who has been among those leading the call for the Lee statue removal. “They need to know that their ideology is not acceptable.”
“I teach about slavery and African-American history and it’s important to face the Klan and to face the demons of our collective history and our original sin of slavery. We do it on behalf of our ancestors who were terrorized by them.”
Though the council voted to remove the statue, a court order has stopped the city from acting on that decision until a hearing next month. Some observers predict a protracted legal battle that would further delay the removal.