Charlottesville anniversary: How has America handled its white supremacy problem?

A year after the Charlottesville rally, the alt-right movement has faced challenges but will continue on with another rally

One year after white supremacists shocked the United States by confidently marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, bearing torches — or, more accurately, tiki torches — America has seen a fragmentation of the so-called alt-right movement that then became a national concern, even as President Donald Trump fuelled their ambitions from a presidential podium.

The events in Charlottesville — which left three dead, including one counter-demonstrator — were perhaps the most high-profile moment in the modern white supremacist resurgence, but the fractured group continues to mobilise today, even if their voices have been muffled in traditional news outlets.

Here’s what you need to know about what happened, and has happened since:

Let’s recap the actual events

On August 11 and 12 of 2017, a group of white supremacists rallied for an event called “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia. The event was initially planned to demonstrate in support of preserving Confederate leader Robert E Lee.

The night of August 11, white supremacists were filmed by Vice News with tiki torches marching on the University of Virginia campus, chanting racist and anti-semitic messages. They were met with counter protesters. But the situation did not turn violent then.

The next day, on August 12, the Unite the Right rally came out in full force and was met with fierce resistance. The white supremacists once again changed racist slogans, and many were openly carrying weapons — including assault-style weapons in some cases — as Virginia is a state that allows for the open carrying of firearms. Counter demonstrators, meanwhile, began their day with an interfaith prayer and songs of peace. Some of the county protesters also carried shields and clubs.

The demonstrators and counter-demonstrators became violent, and at least one self-identified Ku Klux Klansman was seen firing a pistol into the ground near an African-American protester. Another counter-protester, a former special education instruction assistant, was also beaten in a parking garage in an assault that was captured on video.

The conflict between the two groups led the City of Charlottesville to declare a state of emergency, but the violence persisted.

Later in the day, a white supremacist demonstrator drove his car through a group of peaceful counter protesters who had assembled on a street. That attack, which was also caught on video, left one woman, Heather Heyer, dead.

How did the nation and president react?

The nation was shocked, and engaged in a heated debate about white supremacism in the United States, and whether the divisive rhetoric of the 2016 election had normalized racism in a country that has a long and difficult history on the subject.

The president, meanwhile, gave various responses to the violence. Here’s a brief racap:

• The day of the protests, the White House issued a statement condemning the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides”, and indicated that the administration wanted to “study it” and “see what we’re doing wrong as a country”.
• The day after the protests, as outrage over the initial statement swirled, the White House released another statement stating that “The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremists groups”. The statement included a call for unity.
• The next day, a Monday, Mr Trump was still facing pressure to personally remark on the events in Charlottesville, and broke that silence on Twitter only to denounce American CEOs who were resigning from his manufacturing council in protest of his silence. Later, the president read a statement from a teleprompter saying that “racism is evil” and hate groups who cause violence “are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans”.
• On the Tuesday, Mr Trump once again commented on the situation, and rolled back his Monday statement to once again insist that both sides had been violence. At one point, he insisted that the press treated neo-Nazis “unfairly”. He later claimed that he owns a house in Charlottesville when asked if he would visit Charlottesville. He also suggested that Confederate memorials should be preserved because if they are removed then other, less contentious memorials to figures like George Washington may eventually be removed.

What has happened since?

The white nationalist movement, after that initial outburst, has largely been excluded from the traditional media outlets that gave the events at Charlottesville so much attention — and the broader movement has reportedly fractured, even if white supremacist sentiment has not dissolved.

The movement has been hampered to some extent by lawsuits filed against leaders of last year’s rally, which has hampered organising to some extent. Leaders were also denied PayPal accounts, which made it much more difficult to raise money for organising.

At the same time, so-called “free speech” rallies have persisted, with demonstrators descending on Portland, Oregon, as recently as last weekend.

What is happening on the anniversary of the protests?

Another right wing rally is planned in Washington, DC, where the demonstrators plan on coming together just outside of the White House.

But, the rally is expected to be quite a bit smaller — and it is unlikely that any protesters would be allowed to open carry firearms so close to the president’s home.

Meanwhile, the governor of Virginia has already declared a state of emergency from August 10 to 12 in Charlottesville, and in areas outside of Washington where demonstrations could lead to unrest.