MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Around 200 people of diverse backgrounds and varying age groups locked hands Sunday night and offered words of condolence and a moment of silence following racially-tinged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.
“There are at least 200 people in Morgantown that understand that unless they stand up and take a stand against hatred, that it will continue,” Deandra Burton, a black Morgantown native and WVU alumna, said after delivering an emotional speech.
A rally called “Unite the Right” led protests on the University of Virginia campus against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). The demonstrators carried torches through the streets on Friday. Some were clad in KKK gear — and were joined by former Grand Wizard David Duke. Others in the crowd donned Nazi paraphernalia and performed the Nazi salute. The march included people from varying neo-Nazi and white supremacy organizations — including the National Socialist Movement, the Nationalist Front (formerly the Aryan Nationalist Alliance), and National Vanguard.
“This has been my whole life,” Burton said. “We see it happen time and time again — not necessarily to that scale of what’s going on. But it’s nothing new to me. It wasn’t surprising to me. Of course, it hurt my heart because this is 2017, and this is where we still are.”
The day of back-and-forth violence included three fatalities. A 20-year-old marcher named James Alex Fields from Ohio is accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. Two members of the Virginia State Police were also killed when a helicopter crashed.
“What I’m looking for is that beloved community that Martin Luther King talked about,” David Fryson, head of WVU’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “That beloved community includes black people, white people, brown people, red people. What we’re fighting for, as you can see this great turnout tonight, is just true equality — that people can be who they are whatever their background is.”
Fryson attended Sunday night’s vigil in Morgantown without the intention of speaking publicly. However, he felt those in attendance needed to be aware that the University was listening. He also felt, as a person of color, it was important to offer his thoughts to the crowd following Saturday’s violence.
“When we stand together, there is no power, no white supremacist, no KKK, no nationalist, no alt-right can defeat us in our solidarity,” Fryson said.
The demonstrators in Charlottesville also were heard chanting “Jews will not replace us” during Friday night’s march.
“It should be chilling not just for people of color, because the Nazi’s didn’t just kill people of color,” Fryson said. “The white supremacists didn’t just kill people of color.”
What’s particularly chilling, Fyrson said, is that Saturday’s demonstration by assorted white supremacy groups and neo-Nazi organizations was not done in the shadows.
“It used to be that hate would come under cover,” he said. “So if there was a Klan really, they would put their suits on. You couldn’t say who they were. Now it’s being done just absolutely open, which is really chilling.”
But both Burton and Fryson say they are still willing to hope for a better day.
“They didn’t come out of the womb hating,” she said. “They were taught that. So, I hope that they will at some point be open to understanding how wrong they are. And how putting down someone else does not lift them up anymore. We are all human beings in America trying to get by, trying to be happy, trying to raise our children.”
“We don’t have a mind of fear,” Fryson said. “I don’t walk around with trepidation because I believe we have right on our side.”
The candlelight vigil included speeches from Morgantown Councilman Ryan Wallace, Democratic House of Delegates candidate Evan Hansen, WVU students, representatives of the LGBTQ community, and a number of other community members.