Trial set to begin in deadly white nationalist rally
RICHMOND, Va. — A planned "Unite the Right" rally by white nationalists in Charlottesville exploded in chaos: violent brawling in the streets, racist chants, smoke bombs, and finally, a car speeding into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring dozens more.
Afterward, President Donald Trump enflamed racial tensions when he said "both sides" were to blame, a comment some saw as a refusal to condemn racism.
Fifteen months later, as the man accused of driving the car heads to trial on murder charges, the wounds are still raw. Few in Charlottesville believe the trial will do much to heal the community or the country's racial divide.
"Hopefully, this will signal a chance for healing, although I am not entirely optimistic about that because the entire culture in which we live is so steeped these days in white supremacy and white nationalism that violence is becoming less an exception to the practice of American democracy and more like a brutal showing of it," said Lisa Woolfork, a University of Virginia professor who was in a crowd of counterprotesters when the car seemed to come out of nowhere on Aug. 12, 2017.
Heather Heyer, 32, a paralegal and civil rights activist marching about 100 feet away from Woolfork, was killed. The death toll rose to three when a state police helicopter monitoring the event crashed, killing two troopers.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trial-set-to-begin-in-deadly-white-nationalist-rally/ar-BBQ2Oxd?li=BBnbcA1