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It was a tragic day that became symbolic of the rise of the extreme right in the US during the presidency of Donald Trump. On August 12, 2017, during a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, a young neo-Nazi sympathizer rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. A young woman died and dozens of people were injured.
On August 12, 2017, the progressive university city of Charlottesville, in the State of Virginia, became the scene of a protest by white supremacists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. The rally had been called to oppose the city’s decision to tear down a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general during the American Civil War. A demonstration authorized by a judge in the name of freedom of expression.
Counter-protesters, made up of local residents, students and anti-racist groups also took to the streets, angered by images of a white supremacist torchlight parade from the night before. Clashes broke out between the two groups, culminating in tragedy when neo-Nazi sympathizer James Fields crashed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.
Five years later, our reporters returned to Charlottesville, a city still deeply affected by the events of that fateful day.
