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Students Hold Their Ground Amid A Sea Of White Supremacists On U.S. Campus

Torch-wielding alt-right marchers chanted 'white lives matter' and 'Jews will not replace us'.

Hundreds of white marchers with blazing torches clashed briefly with counterprotesters on the Charlottesville campus of the University of Virginia on Friday, the eve of a rally planned by thousands of white nationalists, media said.

The events highlight a persistent debate in the U.S. South over the display of the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the rebel side in the Civil War, fought over the issue of slavery.

Some of the men could be heard chanting "white lives matter" and "Jews will not replace us," the Washington Post reported.

The group made its way from Nameless Field through the sprawling campus to the school's Thomas Jefferson statue, where it was met by counterprotesters, an affiliate of NBC news said.

Some people — reportedly students from UVA —linked arms and held up signs while being surrounded at the base of the statue.

Both groups threw punches and pushed each other as police arrived to break up the clash. A chemical irritant was sprayed into the crowd, NBC29.com reported.

At least one person was arrested and several on campus were treated for minor injuries, the Daily Progress newspaper said.

White Supremacists encircle counter protestors at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., USA on August 11, 2017.
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White Supremacists encircle counter protestors at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., USA on August 11, 2017.

"I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus," Mayor Mike Singer said in a statement.

A number of anti-racism groups also made statements about Friday's events on social media.

The University of Virginia also condemned the event.

The clash came the night before an estimated 2,000 to 6,000 people were to attend a Unite the Right rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a public park on Saturday.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has said extremist groups have threatened to try and attack rally participants, to express opposition to the statue's removal.

White supremacists with torches marched at the University of Virginia on Friday.
Getty Images
White supremacists with torches marched at the University of Virginia on Friday.

The National Guard is on standby, with Virginia State Police coordinating security in the city of 45,000, the governor said in a statement.

"I want to urge my fellow Virginians, who may consider joining, either in support or opposition to the planned rally, to make alternative plans," McAuliffe said.

The rally also aimed to protest against Charlottesville's decision to rename downtown Lee Park, now called Emancipation Park, besides the statue removal.

Supporters call such statues racially insensitive, while opponents say Confederate symbols honor Southern heritage, and calls to remove them reflect "empty political correctness."

Lee was a symbol for white people threatened by immigration and "ethnic cleansing," rally organizer and freelance journalist Jason Kessler said in an interview with Pennsylvania's WHLM radio on Thursday.

White supremacists march through the University of Virginia on Friday. Clashes with counterprotesters had to be broken up by police.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
White supremacists march through the University of Virginia on Friday. Clashes with counterprotesters had to be broken up by police.

City officials had planned to move the event to a larger park beyond downtown, citing safety concerns at the 1-acre (0.4 hectare) Emancipation Park.

Kessler sued the city, and on Friday night a federal court sided with him. In a subsequent posting on social network Twitter, Kessler said the rally would be held at the downtown park.

Mimi Arbeit, an organizer of the planned counter-protests, rejected Kessler's argument that the rally was about freedom of speech.

"Fascism functions by using the institutions of a democracy towards its own ends," she said by telephone.

With files from HuffPost Canada

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Frank McGurty and Clarence Fernandez)

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