Victim’s mother: ‘So much healing to do’
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. • The mother of a woman killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally last summer said Sunday that there’s much healing to do a year after the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, laid flowers at a makeshift memorial at the site of the attack in downtown Charlottesville. With a crowd gathered around her, she thanked them for coming to remember her daughter but also acknowledged the dozens of others injured and the two state troopers killed when a helicopter crashed that day.
“There’s so much healing to do,” Bro said. “We have a huge racial problem in our city and in our country. We have got to fix this or we’ll be right back here in no time.”
The vigil was one in a series of largely peaceful community events held in Charlottesville over the weekend to mark the anniversary of the rally, one of the largest gatherings of white nationalists and other far-right extremists in a decade.
About 115 miles away in Washington, Jason Kessler, the principal organizer of last year’s “Unite the Right” event, led what he called a white civil rights rally Sunday afternoon in Lafayette Square in front of the White House. President Donald Trump wasn’t home — he has been at his golf club in New Jersey for more than a week on a working vacation.
Kessler said in his permit application that he expected 100 to 400 people to participate in his event, though the number appeared it might be far lower.
Counterprotesters assembled ahead of the rally’s scheduled start vastly outnumbered Kessler’s crowd. By midafternoon, more than 1,000 people had already gathered in Freedom Plaza, also near the White House, to oppose Kessler’s demonstration and they too planned to march to Lafayette Square.
Makia Green, who represents the Washington branch of Black Lives Matter, told Sunday’s crowd that: “We know from experience that ignoring white nationalism doesn’t work.”
Earlier in the day in Charlottesville, more than 200 people gathered in a park to protest racism and mark the anniversary.
The group sang songs and listened to speakers.
Susan Bro, right, mother of Heather Heyer who was killed during last year’s Unite the Right rally, embraces a supporter Sunday.