Rotimi Morgan/
Protests rocked major cities across the US on Sunday in response to the shocking violence seen at Charlottesville’s ‘Unite the Right’ rally on Saturday.
The protests erupted after Barak Obama spoke out to condemn the violence and racial clashes at the deadly white nationalist rally in Virginia.
The former President quoted Nelson Mandela in a tweet on Saturday night as violent clashes between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters unfolded in Charlottesville.
A Nazi sympathiser, 20-year-old James Fields, used his Dodge Charger to run over counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.
He has been charged with second degree murder.
Anti-fascist groups, Black Lives Matter supporters and others gathered in cities in states from coast to coast, including a planned march on Trump Tower in New York, a candlelight vigil in Florida and a rally in a public square in Cleveland.
Some protested President Trump’s lackluster response to the Charlottesville violence; some showed up in support of the activists who were injured and killed; still others protested what they saw as police complicity in fascist violence.
Protesters in some southern states pushed for the removal of Confederate monuments – the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in Charlottesville.
Obama, who has mostly refrained from making public comments since leaving office in January, wrote in part: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion,”
His former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, also weighed in on Twitter on the Charlottesville devastation saying her heart was with the city and “everyone made to feel unsafe in their country”.
She continued: “The incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets,’ Clinton tweeted.
“Every minute we allow this to persist through tacit encouragement or inaction is a disgrace, & corrosive to our values.
“Now is the time for leaders to be strong in their words & deliberate in their actions.”
Unlike Obama and Clinton, President Donald Trump’s statement was widely criticised – including by members of his own political party – for seemingly equating the white nationalists and neo-Nazis, gathered in the Virginia town to protest the removal of a confederate Robert E. Lee statue, with those marching against the hate groups.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump reportedly said, on Saturday, in his formal reaction to the violence.
Meanwhile, a nationalist has been fired from his job as Twitter begins naming and shaming alt-right supporters involved in the deadly Charlottesville rally.
Cole White was identified as one of the alt-right protesters at the violent Unite the Right march on Twitter by user Yes, You’re Racist.
After his employers Top Dog restaurant, in Berkeley, were alerted that White attended the rally, he was fired.
The Twitter user has vowed to expose more participants at the racist march.
Protesters in New York on Sunday 