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San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Book Review: 'Charlottesville' a dramatic account of deadly 2017 rally and history behind it
Decades before the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville that drew white nationalists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, the city was targeted by a white supremacist who hoped to ignite a race war. To understand the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Deborah Baker writes in 'Charlottesville: An American Story,' readers have to go back to 1956 and John Kasper's trip to Charlottesville to protest school integration. That historical context combines with a vivid narrative of the 2017 demonstrations to give readers a better understanding of the combustible atmosphere that converged on Charlottesville. The narrative is the heart of Baker's comprehensive history, including details of Heather Heyer's killing by James Alex Fields Jr. — who kept a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler by his bedside and drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters. Baker's writing style delivers an on-the-ground feel of what it was like in Charlottesville, including a harrowing account of the night torch-wielding white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia's campus. But Baker also dives into the history of key players in the events that day, including white nationalist leader Richard Spencer and Zyahna Bryant, who initiated the petition to remove the statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the city's parks. She also explores the shortcomings by authorities, including officials who credulously took white nationalist organizers at their word. ___
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Book Review: ‘Charlottesville' a dramatic account of deadly 2017 rally and history behind it
Decades before the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville that drew white nationalists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, the city was targeted by a white supremacist who hoped to ignite a race war. To understand the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Deborah Baker writes in 'Charlottesville: An American Story,' readers have to go back to 1956 and John Kasper's trip to Charlottesville to protest school integration. That historical context combines with a vivid narrative of the 2017 demonstrations to give readers a better understanding of the combustible atmosphere that converged on Charlottesville. The narrative is the heart of Baker's comprehensive history, including details of Heather Heyer's killing by James Alex Fields Jr. — who kept a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler by his bedside and drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters. Baker's writing style delivers an on-the-ground feel of what it was like in Charlottesville, including a harrowing account of the night torch-wielding white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia's campus. But Baker also dives into the history of key players in the events that day, including white nationalist leader Richard Spencer and Zyahna Bryant, who initiated the petition to remove the statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the city's parks. She also explores the shortcomings by authorities, including officials who credulously took white nationalist organizers at their word. Baker's research and eye for detail give 'Charlottesville' the historical authority necessary for understanding the tragic events that occurred over those two days. ___ AP book reviews:
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Masked Patriot Front white nationalists march Saturday in Kansas City
Scores of masked white nationalists descended on Kansas City Saturday, holding a rally outside the National WWI Museum and Memorial and marching downtown carrying flags and chanting. Police said the event, carried out by the Patriot Front, did not result in any arrests. Talk about the march spread rapidly on social media throughout the afternoon and evening. The Patriot Front is a white nationalist 'and avowedly fascist nationwide organization' that was formed in the aftermath of the deadly 'Unite the Right' march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. On Saturday, the group's members — faces covered and dressed in their signature navy shirts, khaki pants and tan caps — marched down the sidewalks chanting, 'Life, liberty, victory' and 'Reclaim America.' Some carried shields and many carried flags, including upside-down American flags, Betsy Ross flags and Confederate flags. A video posted on X showed more than 150 marchers lined up in formation outside the National WWI Museum and Memorial as leader Thomas Rousseau gave a speech. When the event was over, the members piled into U-Haul trucks. In a video posted later on X, Rousseau said that 'today was the largest action we've ever put on as an organization.' 'It was remarkably successful, and we accomplished every single objective we set out to for the day.' Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a Kansas City Police spokesperson, said a patrol sergeant saw a group of about 100 marching on the sidewalk near the National WWI Museum and Memorial for about an hour. 'The KCPD was unaware this group was planning to come into our city as they do not advertise their protest/march locations,' she said in an email. 'We learned this group calls themselves the Patriot Front and it is believed everyone involved is from out of town and not local to Kansas City.' Gonzalez said it appeared the group did not need a parade permit for the event. 'A parade permit is not needed unless roadways need to be shutdown, and from information received at this point the group remained on the sidewalk and out of roadways,' she said. 'There is zero indication that KCPD was involved in any kind of escort capacity while the group was here. There were no arrests made or citations issued. The group has left Kansas City.' Mayor Quinton Lucas commented about the march in a post on X Saturday evening. 'While the First Amendment provides the right to bring any message to Kansas City,' he said, 'we know that our diversity, our welcoming community, and our respect for the rights of all reject whatever hate and cowardice come our way.' A spokesperson for the National WWI Museum and Memorial issued a statement Sunday afternoon denouncing the Patriot Front's views. 'The National WWI Museum and Memorial is aware of yesterday's gathering on the public grounds surrounding our institution,' said Karis Erwin, vice president of marketing and guest services. 'We respect First Amendment protections for peaceful assembly and free speech, and want to be unequivocally clear that the views expressed by this group do not represent or align with our values. We stand firmly against hatred, bigotry and divisiveness in all forms.' While the grounds include public park space where groups may gather, Erwin said, 'such use should never be interpreted as our endorsement of any particular viewpoint.' 'The Museum and Memorial remains committed to serving as a place of learning, reflection and unity for all visitors. This Memorial Day, as we do every day, we honor the lives of those who died in defense of liberty and freedom. This Memorial, a beacon for democracy, reminds us all of core values that seek to unite us and create a just and lasting peace for all nations.' Devin Burghart, president and executive director of the Seattle-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said Kansas City was the only city targeted by the Patriot Front on Saturday. 'The presence of a group of masked white nationalists tromping through the streets of Kansas City is a stark reminder that, in this moment, we must counter racism and bigotry on the margins and in the mainstream,' Burghart said in an email to The Star on Sunday. 'The attention-seeking neo-fascist group Patriot Front is well-known for utilizing stunts like this to generate publicity and attract broken young men to their ranks. Widespread community condemnation and long-term organizing are essential in making sure this new generation of white nationalists can't take root in our communities.' Rousseau founded the Patriot Front in an effort to rebrand the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America after the violence in Charlottesville, according to groups that monitor far-right extremists. The white supremacist convicted of killing Heather Heyer when he intentionally plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters that day was seen in photographs holding a shield emblazoned with the Vanguard America logo. In June 2022, police arrested 31 Patriot Front members in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, after receiving a tip that men in face masks with riot gear were seen getting into a U-Haul outside a hotel. Police pulled the truck over near a park where an annual Pride event was to take place. Inside the truck, officers found a smoke grenade, shields and other gear as well as documents describing a plan to incite a disturbance at the park. A May 2023 IREHR report said that Missouri was the third most active state for Patriot Front activity. It said the group's members sometimes perform charitable acts to improve their image. 'On November 11, 2022, Patriot Front members handed out food and blankets to people experiencing homelessness in Kansas City,' the report said. 'Flyers about Patriot Front were attached to the brown bags they were handing out. 'This type of action is about more than helping the community. This recruitment tool gets young men and teenagers involved in the group.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats running for attorney general say Virginia needs to challenge Trump
Democrats will choose between a longtime prosecutor from the Richmond suburbs and a former lawmaker from a politically active Hampton Roads family in the primary race for attorney general. Former state delegate Jay Jones and Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor are facing off in the Democratic primary. Democrats are hoping to win big this year. Virginia is considered to be a bellwether state because its statewide elections are held the year after the presidential election. Virginia's election in November is thought to be a referendum on the president's first year in office. The winner of the race will run against incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in November. Early voting has already begun, and primary day is June 17. ___ Taylor has served as the commonwealth's attorney of Henrico since 2011 and has been a practicing attorney for almost 30 years. In addition to the attorney general's role as an advisor to state agencies and offer consumer protection, she said that experience particularly prepares her for the role of the state's top prosecutor. As commonwealth's attorney, the 57-year-old was appointed special prosecutor in Virginia's case against one of the men involved with the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, though the charges were ultimately dismissed following a mistrial. 'The importance of being the prosecutor for the commonwealth is two points,' she said. 'The fact that I can do our own investigation and our own prosecuting as the attorney general or be there as a resource for our local prosecutors. … I have very good relationships across this commonwealth with all of my colleagues to be able to offer assistance in whatever they may need.' Taylor is making the case that she's the more experienced candidate. In a new ad, she seemingly took aim at Jones, saying, 'I'm the only Democrat to have prosecuted a criminal case and win a Republican seat.' 757 Votes: The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press 2025 primary election guide Jay Jones and Shannon Taylor compete in Virginia's Attorney General Democratic primary Early voting in Virginia primary elections starts this week. Here's what you need to know. But Jones says he's prepared for the role, and his time in the consumer protection unit of Washington, D.C.'s attorney general's office offered valuable experience. He said he took on slumlords and corporate special interest groups in that time. 'My hair is all gray at this point,' the 36-year-old joked. 'I've had my experience as an assistant attorney general. I've been a trial attorney for over a decade now. … I think all of that lends itself to this moment when we need someone who's going to step up and use the office as it should be used.' Jones hails from Norfolk, where he currently resides. He previously served as state delegate, elected to his dad Jerrauld Jones Sr.'s old seat. He served in the legislature from 2018 to 2021 but stepped down shortly after he was last elected, saying he and his wife were expecting their first child. Jones' grandfather Hilary Jones Sr. was a civil rights attorney in Norfolk and the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board. Jones went on to work as an assistant attorney general in Washington, D.C., before primarying then-incumbent Mark Herring for the position of attorney general in 2021. Jones lost that race, and Herring was defeated by Miyares in the general election that year. In 2023, Jones, who now works in private practice, sued the governor's administration on behalf of the Virginia NAACP for access to the voting rights restoration database, though a judge later denied that access. ___ Both candidates are running on staunch anti-Trump platforms and say Virginia should have signed onto lawsuits brought by Democratic attorneys general against the administration, like one that states signed onto to restore federal research money. 'We are now watching our current attorney general not challenging any of the executive orders that are coming from the Trump administration, not even looking for the constitutionality or legality,' Taylor said. '(The court) found that if you were a state that did make that challenge, the research money should come and has to come to those states. But because Jason Miyares did not file in that case, the commonwealth of Virginia is losing out on millions of dollars of research money that goes to very critical issues like Alzheimer's and cancer research.' 'I think it's really important for folks to know that when we don't participate in these lawsuits, we don't get to avail ourselves of the protections that the injunctions that have been handed down offer those other states that have put those lawsuits up,' Jones said. 'In particular, (the lawsuits to protect federal funding and to protect federal workers) I would have loved to have seen Miyares engage and fight for us.' Both candidates also say they want to expand certain units within the attorney general's office. Jones said he would build out a civil rights unit and a labor justice unit. Taylor said she would expand the Medicaid fraud unit to encompass broader elder abuse investigations and protections. ___ Powerful current and former state and local Democratic officials are split in their endorsements this campaign. Jones is endorsed by former Govs. Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott and much of the Hampton Roads delegation in the state legislature, including Sen. Mamie Locke and Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler. Meanwhile, Taylor has so far been endorsed by more commonwealth's attorneys, former Attorneys General Mark Herring and Mary Sue Terry, and Eileen Filler-Corn, former speaker of the House of Delegates. In April, Taylor announced that she had fundraised more than $1 million, including $525,000 raised in the first quarter of the year, which ended in March. Jones' campaign reported that as of last filing, it had raised more than $1.8 million including more than $900,000 raised in the first quarter. Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881,
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UVA Tried To Shut Down Its Historical Tours Discussing Slavery. These Students Resisted.
Davis Taliaferro Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take For decades, the University of Virginia relied on the student-run group, University Guide Services (UGS), to lead admissions and historical tours on campus. That changed earlier this year when the university ended the group's special status designation. UGS leaders saw the move as part of a larger crackdown on history and truth-telling that is happening across the nation. Now, with the support of the student body, student guides are doubling down on their commitment to share their campus' history. UGS has led campus tours for UVA since the 1950s. Starting in the '90s, the group expanded the scope to include the more difficult parts of UVA's history. The tours mostly covered student life, but also the Unite the Right rally in 2017, in which neo-Nazis with tiki torches marched through the campus, and how enslaved workers built the school. The decision to include these topics caused an uproar from the Jefferson Council, a conservative alumni group. The council's website features blog posts critiquing UGS dating back to 2022. Posts often center alumni's negative experience with tours, claiming that guides hate UVA and that tours are 'part of a conscious strategy that weeds out conservative voices and reinforces a conformist, intellectual monoculture.' 'When I'm giving a tour and I'm critiquing something from the past, it comes from a place where I want people to understand where this university came from so that we can be better in the future,' Jack Giese, UGS co-chair, told Teen Vogue. 'We are not a group walking around grounds trying to make people hate UVA. We want people to understand where we came from.' Jack Giese Until recently, UGS was designated a Special Status Organization (SSO), which allowed it to host tours on behalf of the school and provided unique access to funding and office space. That special relationship between UGS and UVA began to fray in 2024, ostensibly due to issues with guide 'reliability and tour quality.' Over the summer, the university suspended UGS's special status, with promises to collaborate on a 'performance improvement plan.' Guides said that while they were surprised by the suspension, they continued to work with the university to find a solution. Ultimately, the two groups reached an impasse. Group leaders told Teen Vogue that the administration's reliability concerns focused on admissions tours, but the suspension needlessly prevented them from giving historical tours as well. While UVA interns continued admissions tours, the administration collaborated with UGS to map out a self-guided historical tour for visitors, but offered no assurances that it would not ultimately be used as a replacement for in-person tours. On the admissions side, the improvement plan included training that UGS told Teen Vogue felt redundant, given that they already had a semester-long training in place. They also claim the administration began to critique their tour outlines, including historical content. With no end to the negotiations in sight, UGS decided to resume historical tours in January 2025 without university approval. 'We had a hunch that they were just going to terminate the SSO agreement anyway,' UGS vice chair Ella Sher told Teen Vogue. 'We needed to start building up that infrastructure again so that we could give more consistent tours in the spring and also in the following years.' That hunch proved correct. In late February, the administration officially terminated its relationship with UGS, noting the 'limited results' of the negotiations. In a statement to the student newspaper The Cavalier Daily, Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment, noted that only 15 guides had completed the administration's training plan. UGS leaders say the group has about 70 members. A University of Virginia spokesperson did not respond to Teen Vogue's multiple requests for an interview. Sher, Giese, and fellow co-chair Davis Taliafero suspect that there are deeper reasons why the SSO agreement was severed. In an open letter from December 2024 announcing their decision to move forward with their own independent historical tours, they wrote, 'We can only see this suspension as a reaction to the anti-history voices who have long been attacking our organization.' Jack Giese Though they don't mention the Jefferson Council by name in their letter, according to The College Fix, a right-wing education news site, the council claimed responsibility for UGS's suspension. An article quoted council cofounder, Thomas Neale, admitting, 'This [suspension] was 100% due…to us.' In some of its blog posts, the council highlights the administration's connections to UGS, advocating that UVA cut ties. 'Let the student guides find their own audience for their tours…if they can,' wrote James A. Bacon, a member of the council's advisory board, in November 2023. Another of Bacon's posts claimed the backlash against guides was spearheaded by council cofounder and a former member of UVA's board of visitors, Bert Ellis. As one of his last acts on the board, Ellis voted to dismantle UVA's office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The resolution passed unanimously in early March and cited Donald Trump's executive order requiring federally funded schools to eliminate DEI efforts. The executive order is just one of Trump's efforts to politicize funding in higher education. Speaking with The Daily Progress about the vote, Ellis said, 'Every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded, and terminated.' From the beginning, Ellis's tenure on the board was mired in controversy. UVA students protested his appointment in 2022 due to his political views. As a student in the 1970s, Ellis invited eugenicist William Shockley to a campus debate. In 2020, Ellis also caused a stir by attempting to forcibly remove a protest sign from a student's door. On March 26, Ellis was removed from the board by Governor Glenn Youngkin, who wrote that Ellis violated the board's code of conduct, but did not provide further details. 'What's frustrating is that we see a lot of fear right now within colleges and administrators who are not necessarily willing to speak up for students,' Taliafero told Teen Vogue. 'And I think if they were, our outcome would've been a whole lot different.' (Teen Vogue reached out to Ellis for comment.) UVA has remained adamant that the suspension of UGS had nothing to do with its tour content. In a statement about the suspension posted to UVAToday, a spokesperson wrote that UGS's status was suspended because 'it was clear to us that the guide service needed time to improve its reliability and consistency.' The post does mention that the university 'asked the guide service to respond constructively to the persistent (if intermittent) complaints about what a wide variety of guests have described as excessive negativity.' According to UGS's data, their tours have received mostly positive reviews with only rare complaints about historical content. Taliafero says the administration's concerns about guide reliability, however, are not unfounded. In early February 2024, an error underestimated the number of people scheduled to attend a tour. Where previous guide no-shows just resulted in larger tour groups, this time, people who wanted to take a tour were turned away. The incident became a major focal point in the guides' discussions with the administration. Still, Giese said, a suspension seemed to be out of proportion to the problem. 'Personally, if I were an administrator and I had an issue with [tour size]...my response would not have been, I'm going to suspend the organization and probably decrease dramatically the number of people who are available to give tours,' he said. Undeterred by the SSO termination, UGS continues to give historical tours. They intend to carry on as a student group with overwhelming support from their peers. During campus elections in early March, a referendum on the ballot condemning the UGS suspension passed with 80% of the vote. (The referendum was written prior to the SSO termination.) While some students are understandably anxious, UGS chairs say that the events of the past year have motivated students to join their group. 'History tells you about how people in the past stood up to things like this," Taliafero said. "So I think when we look at history, we can find a lot of inspiration to continue the work that we're doing.' Allie Kim Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want to read more Teen Vogue history coverage?
