Criminal Justice & the Rule of Law

The First Amendment on the Grounds in Charlottesville

Josh Blackman
Monday, August 14, 2017, 2:00 PM

On Friday, Aug. 11, I traveled to Charlottesville, Va., to attend my co-clerk’s wedding. I was generally familiar with the controversy over the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue but was not aware that white supremacist demonstrations were scheduled for the weekend. After the rehearsal dinner wrapped, I drove back to the hotel along Main Street.

Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, VA (Photo: Billy Hathorn/Wikimedia)

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On Friday, Aug. 11, I traveled to Charlottesville, Va., to attend my co-clerk’s wedding. I was generally familiar with the controversy over the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue but was not aware that white supremacist demonstrations were scheduled for the weekend. After the rehearsal dinner wrapped, I drove back to the hotel along Main Street. As we approached the Rotunda—the center of the campus designed by Thomas Jefferson himself—the traffic ahead suddenly slowed to a crawl. In the distance, we saw some lights. At first glance, it appeared to be a candlelight vigil, but we quickly realized what was going on. Hundreds of white nationalists with torches were walking down the steps of the Rotunda, chanting something incoherent, though the word “Jews” was distinctly pronounced. The sight was surreal; I was more stunned than afraid.




Josh Blackman is a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, and the author of An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know.

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