With a General Robert E. Lee statue in the background, people gather at Lee Park in Charlottesville. Photo / AP
With a General Robert E. Lee statue in the background, people gather at Lee Park in Charlottesville. Photo / AP
Self-proclaimed US white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group of demonstrators carrying torches and chanting "You will not replace us" in Charlottesville, Virginia, protesting against plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year's race for Virginia governor.
"What brings us together isthat we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced," Spencer said at an afternoon protest, the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia.
At the second rally, dozens of torch-bearing protesters gathered in a city park and chanted "You will not replace us" and "Russia is our friend," local television footage shows. Spencer was not shown addressing that gathering, but he tweeted a photo of himself standing in the crowd carrying what appeared to be a bamboo tiki torch. About 10 minutes in, an altercation between Spencer's group and counterprotesters drew police to the scene, and the crowd quickly dispersed, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.
Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term "alt-right"- referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state - and rose to prominence during Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Although Trump denounced the alt-right, Spencer's followers counted his victory as a win for the movement as Trump espoused hard-right stances on undocumented immigrants, Muslims and political correctness.
"You will not replace us. You will not destroy us," Spencer said at the earlier rally. "You cannot destroy us. We have awoken. We are here. We are never going away."
Spencer was in Charlottesville to protest against a City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. A court injunction has halted the removal for six months. The statue has become a rallying cry for Corey Stewart, a Republican gubernatorial candidate. Stewart, who is chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, was chairman of Trump's Virginia campaign until he was fired.
