In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. A trial is beginning in Charlottesville, Va., to determine whether white nationalists who planned the so-called Unite the Right rally will be held civilly responsible for the violence that erupted. Ryan M. Kelly/AP hide caption
In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. A trial is beginning in Charlottesville, Va., to determine whether white nationalists who planned the so-called Unite the Right rally will be held civilly responsible for the violence that erupted.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. A woman who was pushed out of the way as a car slammed into counterprotesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville described a scene of "complete terror" as she testified Monday to seeing her fianc bleeding on the sidewalk and later learning a friend was killed.
Marissa Blair took the stand in the third week of a civil trial in a lawsuit that seeks to hold the white national organizers of the Unite the Right rally accountable for the violence that erupted. Nine people who were physically injured or emotionally scarred, including Blair, are suing the organizers of the rally, alleging they conspired to commit violence during two days of demonstrations in Charlottesville.
"I was confused. I was scared. I was worried about all the people that were there. It was a complete terror scene. It was blood everywhere. I was terrified," said Blair, breaking down in tears several times during her testimony.
The driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler from Maumee, Ohio, is serving life in prison for murder and hate crimes. One woman was killed and dozens were injured in the car attack.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages from two dozen white supremacists, neo-Nazis and organizations the plaintiffs allege participated in a conspiracy to incite violence.
Hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, 2017, ostensibly to protest city plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Clashes between the white nationalists and anti-racism protesters broke out both days, prompting authorities to declare the gathering on Aug. 12 an "unlawful assembly" and to order crowds to disperse. It was after that announcement that Fields rammed his car into a peaceful group of counterprotesters.
The violence shocked the nation, and a political firestorm erupted after then-President Donald Trump failed to strongly denounce the white nationalists, saying there were "very fine people on both sides."
The lawsuit is being funded by Integrity First for America, a nonprofit organization formed in response to the violence in Charlottesville. Some of the country's most well-known white nationalists are named as defendants, including: Richard Spencer, who coined the term "alt-right" to described a loosely connected band of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and others; Jason Kessler, the rally's main organizer; and Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacists who became known as the "crying Nazi" for posting a tearful video when a warrant was issued for his arrest on assault charges for using pepper spray on counterdemonstrators.
The plaintiffs include four people who were hurt in the car attack and others who were victims of violence during a torch rally at the University of Virginia on Aug. 11 or during demonstrations the following day.
The plaintiffs' lawyers have shown the jury a large collection of chat room exchanges, social media postings and other communications in which the defendants use racial epithets and discuss plans for the demonstrations, including what weapons to bring.
They're also relying on a 150-year-old law passed after the Civil War to shield freed slaves from violence and protect their civil rights. Commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the law contains a rarely used provision that allows private citizens to sue other citizens for civil rights violations.
The defendants claim their language in many of their chat room exchanges was hyperbolic and is protected by the First Amendment. They also say their talk of weapons and combat was meant only in the event they had to defend themselves from counterprotesters.
Michael Tubbs, chief of staff of the League of the South, a Southern nationalist organization, acknowledged that he helped league president Michael Hill organize the group's participation in the Charlottesville rally. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who called Tubbs as a hostile witness, showed the jury a video of Tubbs leading a group of league members and associates into a crowd of counterprotesters. Fighting breaks out between the two groups, and Tubbs is shown body-slamming someone.
Tubbs, who testified via video, claimed counterprotesters were beating members of his group and its associates and throwing objects at them. "We were coming to the rescue of our friends and allies that were being beaten by the communists," Tubbs said.
Blair said she received minor physical injuries when her fianc pushed her out of the way as the car sped toward the crowd. But she has suffered from flashbacks, panic attacks and depression from witnessing the attack and from grief over the death of her friend, 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
"My emotional scars were way worse than my physical ones," Blair said.
Blair and her fianc, Marcus Martin, who received serious injuries when he was struck by Fields' car, got married nine months after the attack. But Blair said the physical and psychological impacts of the event took a toll on their relationship and they are now divorced.
Read more:
Woman recalls deadly car attack in United the Right rally in Charlottesville - NPR
- 'The Fandom' Review: Documentary Takes Viewers Into The Misunderstood World Of Furry Fandom - Cartoon Brew [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- MMA and QAnon: How fake news and conspiracies permeated the octagon - The Guardian [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Relative Of Ex-Marine Who Killed Black Protester During Scuffle Says He'd Been Raised In A 'Steaming, Giant Pot Of Racism' - Blavity [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Protesters gather in front of Vancouver city attorneys' homes - The Columbian [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- What's the deal with Twitter competitor Parler? - Slate [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Devin Nunes is still so sick over cow and alt-right mom Twitter trolls - Kulture Hub [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Catholics and alt-right clashed with protestors in Forest Park as activists called for removal of Louis IX statue - St. Louis American [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Discord Was Once The Alt-Rights Favorite Chat App. Now Its Gone Mainstream And Scored A New $3.5 Billion Valuation - Forbes [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2020]
- Anti-maskers bring their misinformation to Halifax - Halifax Examiner [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- The Man in the Antifa Mask: Who he is and why he regrets showing up at a Coeur d'Alene protest with a crowbar - Pacific Northwest Inlander [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Anti-Greta and the challenges faced by young activists | Forge - ForgeToday [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Column: You want a toe? I can get you a toe. An unlikely path forward on the way to net-zero 2050 - BOE Report [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Pro-Trump cartoonist sues Anti-Defamation League for calling him anti-Semitic - PennLive [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- MSNBCs Joy Reid Makes Cable-Network History With the Debut of The ReidOut - Vogue [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- New Mexico's thin blurred line (The thin blurred line) High Country News Know the West - High Country News [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- It's Time To Defund The University of Mississippi Police Department - The Appeal [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- What is white nationalism? Take a look at Trumps agenda. - Vox.com [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Letter to the Editor: Alt-right conspiracies common on social media, talk radio and Fox network - Tulsa World [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Where Progressives and the Alt-Right Meet - The Bulwark [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- What You Need To Know About The Alt-Right Movement : NPR [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Alt-right | Definition of Alt-right by Merriam-Webster [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Trump has officially turned the GOP into the QAnon Party - Business Insider - Business Insider [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Chuck Stephens on lockdown: Can we please go back to the Old Normal? - BizNews [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Good Afternoon, News: Cops Turn Blind Eye to Violent Right Wingers, Falwell (and KellyAnne) Resign, and a Black Wisconsin Man Shot in the Back by... [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Instructive bad reading, Part II: Dissecting fascism with the help of Might is Right - NPI's Cascadia Advocate [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- The heartbreak of loving a conspiracy theorist - Sydney Morning Herald [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- When You Say Yes to Hate: Dispatch From Portland - Reason [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- House Passes Bill to Halt Changes at USPS as Fears Mount over Mail-in Ballots - Democracy Now! [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Vice Labels Critics of Proposed Warhammer 40k Direction As Alt-Right Minority - Bounding Into Comics [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- You Got to Be the Last Guy He Talks To.' The Rise and Fall of Trump Adviser Steve Bannon - TIME [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Privacy and Alt-Right Transhumanism in Hari Kunzru's 'Red Pill' - PopMatters [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Confessions of a Trump Troll - The New Yorker [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Richard Spencer Backs Joe Biden, Says 'MAGA/Alt-Right Moment is Over' - Newsweek [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Paul Gilroy: 'I dont think we can afford the luxury of pessimism' - The Guardian [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Groypers, Proud Boys, other far-right groups rally for Trump at 'Million MAGA March' - The Daily Dot [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Before Trump, South Korean Conservatives Also Claimed a 'Stolen' Election - The Diplomat [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Why Street Violence from Militias, Black Lives Matter, and Antifa Never Appeared - City Watch [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Plot To Infect New Zealand LGBTQI Community With COVID-19 Foiled - Star Observer [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- The left "fetishises council housing with the same conviction as the right fetishises traditional styles - Dezeen [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- News flash... Jesus wasn't white - The Chronicle - Duke Chronicle [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Swastikas off K Road: How the worst art show in New Zealand came to be - The Spinoff [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Will Trump Burn the Evidence? - The New Yorker [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Singh says government must move to counter hate groups, which have tripled since 2015 - Lethbridge News Now [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- The global right is threat to US Jews but a natural home for Israelis - +972 Magazine [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Trumpers Fail To Realize That Homelander Is the Villain of The Boys - The Mary Sue [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Imagining Donald Trumps Presidential Lie-Brary, and Other News - Surface Magazine [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- People Believe What They Want to Believe - City Watch [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- So Now What, Virginia? - The Republican Standard [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Slovenia's Prime Minister Is a Far-Right Conspiracy Theorist and Twitter Addict Who Won't Admit Trump Lost - Foreign Policy [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Can Pepe the Frog Ever Be Redeemed? - WIRED [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Could MAGA protests in DC end like Unite the Right 2 rally, in a whimper? - WUSA9.com [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- The Climate Movement Must Be Ready To Challenge Rising Right-Wing Environmentalism - Jacobin magazine [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- Why "Attack on Titan" Is the Alt-Right's Favorite Manga - The New Republic [Last Updated On: November 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 17th, 2020]
- The woman playing Stormfront is different in real life - Looper [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Kevin McKenna: Devolution has been a disaster for the Westminster Tory cult - The National [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Trumpism Shows Way Forward for Republicans? - Virginia Connection Newspapers [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Living in Borats America - The Nation [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Conservatives Are (Unsurprisingly) Wrong About Eastern Men, Masculinity, And Dresses - Junkee [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- The Boys Have the Last Word on Twitters Latest Meme | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Citizens Disunited: The End of the Transatlantic Trumpist Alliance - Byline Times [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Right-wing media dismiss efforts to save thousands of lives as a "War on Thanksgiving" - Media Matters for America [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- The List: Ranking the candidates Trump could back for Ohio governor in 2022 - Columbus Alive [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- The crackpot factor: Why the GOP is worried about turning out the vote after Trump - Salon [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Can the right thrive on Parler? - New Statesman [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- CAMP: Stand up to your racist family - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Alt-right homophobe plots to infiltrate gay bar and deliberately infect LGBT+ community with COVID-19 - PinkNews [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- White Noise Director on Alt-Right: As Long as Trump Refuses to Concede, This Stuff Is Just Going to Fester - Variety [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2020]
- Memes Are Dominating Attention Spans and Clicks Like Never Before. So Why Is Serious Socially Engaged Art Also Thriving? - artnet News [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2020]
- The Warriors Championship Glow Is Gone. And Yet - The New York Times [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2020]
- Microsoft Excel: 100 Shortcuts That Every Windows User Should Know - Gadgets 360 [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2020]
- The Things We (Actually) Loved Watching in 2020 - The Ringer [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2020]
- Right-wing Twitter rival Parler removed from online platforms - DIGIT.FYI [Last Updated On: January 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 15th, 2021]
- Why some Trump supporters believe theres another American Revolution coming - Scroll.in [Last Updated On: January 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 15th, 2021]
- Decoding the Far-Right Symbols at the Capitol Riot - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 15th, 2021]
- Why the alt-right believes another American Revolution is coming - The Conversation AU [Last Updated On: January 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 15th, 2021]
- Just How Many Texans Are in the Marvel Universe Now, Anyway? - Texas Monthly [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2021]
- 3 Observations About Culture, Politics, and Social Media Radicalization in the Post-Trump Era - artnet News [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2021]
- City-owned facilities being looked at for vaccination centres as part of province's distribution plan - Edmonton Journal [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2021]
- Global Right-Wing Extremism Networks Are Growing. The U.S. Is Just Now Catching Up. - ProPublica [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2021]
- We keep hearing Nazi parallels. What about the Communists? - Los Angeles Times [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2021]