Charlottesville
For clarity: David and I went to Charlottesville in response to a call for faith leaders to peacefully confront a white supremacist rally called "Unite the Right." The rally was convened because of a recent city council decision to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a prominent public park. Two weeks before, the NC chapter of the KKK was in town to protest and the scene turned ugly. Now, with white supremacists coming from all over the country, local faith leaders and other anti-racist groups (such as Black Lives Matter and Showing Up For Racial Justice) were asking for anyone committed to non-violent direct action to join them for a counter-protest. We were not able to attend the non-violence trainings held on Friday night, which is why we did not participate in the action directly. What I've tried to do is detail what our day was like as accurately and plainly as I can. We didn't have a lot of information about what was going on as the d...