A multi-racial coalition of faith, student and community activists announced Saturday that they plan to march from Charlottesville, Virginia, to the nation’s capital in response what they called President Donald Trump’s failure to confront the white supremacy on display at a violent rally in the Virginia city earlier this month.
The 10-day march will begin Monday and is expected to stop at Confederate monuments along the route. Organized by groups including the Women’s March on Washington, Color of Change, Indivisible, Mijente, Repairers of the Breach and the Movement for Black Lives, the march is expected to end in Washington on Sept. 6.Organizers say white supremacist violence, rhetoric and policies have intensified since Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and must be confronted. The Aug. 12 rally in Charlottesville — where protesters including professed neo-Nazis and white nationalists rallied to save a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee — erupted in violence and counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed when she was struck by a car that plowed through a crowd.
Trump gave a mixed response to the violence. The president condemned white supremacy, defended Confederate statues and blamed “many sides” for the violence. Those critical of Trump wanted him to go further in rejecting racist extremism.
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Errin Haines Whack is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity Team. Follow her work on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/emarvelous.
I hope that the police are ready in a good way. Because the neonazis and white supremacists will be ready in a bad way.
Remember all the violence and arrests at the Women’s March in Washington in January? Me neither – because there was no violence and no arrests (if I recall correctly).
Go team!
When Donald Trump pardon the sheriff from Phoenix who is clearly a racist and a bigot by using his office to intimidate and threaten minorities .
By doing so Donald Trump has emphasized and confirmed the fact that he is a racist and a bigot, he is a threat to our country and our democracy