White Nationalists March on University of Virginia<br />Thousands of people — many from out of town — are expected to descend on the city to either protest or participate in a “Unite the Right” rally<br />on Saturday convened by white nationalists who oppose a plan to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, from a city park.<br />City officials and the police said they were prepared for possible unrest; the Virginia National Guard put out a statement saying it would “closely monitor the situation.” Mayor Mike Signer said in an interview on Friday<br />that he had been consulting with fellow mayors, seeking advice on how to “be prepared to make sure people can assemble and express themselves freely.”<br />Religious leaders who are planning counterdemonstrations — including a sunrise prayer service featuring Cornel West, the Harvard professor<br />and political activist — have been training in nonviolent protest.<br />The fight over the Lee statue — in a downtown park<br />that was called Lee Park until it was recently renamed Emancipation Park — has opened up old wounds and brought simmering tensions over race to the fore.<br />CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A month after a Ku Klux Klan rally here ended with the police using tear gas on protesters, Charlottesville is bracing for a weekend of white nationalist demonstrations<br />and counterprotests, and suddenly this tranquil college town feels like a city under siege.<br />Mr. Kessler, who organized the event on Saturday and calls himself a “white advocate,” said in an interview<br />that his goal was to “de-stigmatize white advocacy so that white people can stand up for their interests just like any other identity group.”<br />In the run-up to Saturday, there has been confusion over where, precisely, the Unite the Right rally will take place.
