in the morning. The crowd
included a wide variety
of extremist groups and militias, or citizen groups organized
as a military force. In response, hundreds of counterprotesters
gathered. Tensions flared from the very beginning, and
rallygoers and counterprotesters yelled insults and chants. Small
fights started up and died down. Eventually, a large-scale fight
broke out as rally marchers and counterprotesters attacked each
other, punching, swinging wooden clubs, and spraying chemical
irritants into the crowd. As fighting grew more out of hand,
police stepped in to break up the fights and turn people away.
The police declared an unlawful assembly, saying it was illegal
for individuals to continue to gather because of the threat to
public safety and peace. The crowds started to split up, and the
Unite the Right rally was canceled before it officially began.
But the violence of the day was not over. One of the
rallygoers was a twenty-year-old man from Ohio named James
Fields Jr. Fields had a history of violence. As a teen, he had
The night before the official Unite the Right
rally on August 12, 2017, protesters met at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The
group carried torches and chanted white power
slogans as they marched through campus. A
small clash with a group of counterprotesters
hinted at what was to come the next day.
5
