White Nationalist Leader Richard Spencer Marches In Charlottesville Again
Image by Reddit/Youtube
(JTA) — White nationalist leader Richard Spencer led a second torchlight march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The march on Saturday included several dozen torch-bearing white nationalists who marched through Emancipation Park to the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, which the city is working to remove, along with the statues of other Confederate leaders. Spencer was the featured speaker at the rally.
Spencer tweeted a video clip of the march under the heading “Back in Charlottesville.” He later tweeted “Charlottesville 3.0 was a success.”
The protesters chanted “You will not replace us,” and “We will be back.”
Charlottesville’s Jewish mayor, Mike Signer, responded to the march in a tweet: “Another despicable visit by neo-Nazi cowards. You’re not welcome here! Go home! Meantime we’re looking at all our legal options. Stay tuned.”
“It was a planned flash mob,” Spencer told the Washington Post “It was a great success. We’ve been planning this for a long time.”
“We wanted to prove that we came in peace in May, we came in peace in August, and we come again in peace,” he also said.
The protesters have vowed to continue to return to Charlottesville, according to the Washington Post.
The Unite the Right rally in August in Charlottesville led to skirmishes between the 500 or so white supremacists, neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan in attendance, with counterprotesters. Many protesters were armed and some carried Nazi flags and shouted racist and anti-Semitic slogans. An alleged white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, and injuring at least 20 people. President Donald Trump later equated the protesters with those who opposed them.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
