August 11, 2018

A Year Later, Charlottesville Remembers Heather Heyer

“Gone but not forgotten.”

Heather Heyer's mother Susan Bro speaks with reporters in front of a memorial.Steve Helber/AP

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A year ago this weekend, Charlottesville was overrun with Confederate flags, swastikas, and torch-carrying white supremacists.

While much of the anniversary has been overrun with news about Unite the Right’s planned protest on Sunday in Washington, DC, many are using the weekend to honor Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester who was killed last year in Charlottesville when a suspected white nationalist drove a car into the crowd.

There is also a heavy police presence in Charlottesville this weekend and small groups of anti-fascist protesters:

After first tweeting a tirade against the FBI Saturday morning, President Donald Trump took note of last year’s violence, stating, “I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!”

Writers Jamelle Bouie and Jamil Smith noted that Trump’s continued emphasis on “all types of racism” and “all Americans” echoes his past reluctance to single out his white nationalist supporters for condemnation. Last year, he claimed there were “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville and condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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