FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 9, 2022
Media Contact: Congregate Charlottesville
Survivors of the 2017 white supremacist attacks on Charlottesville still need our help:
Congregate Charlottesville asks for donations to 5th anniversary fundraiser
(Charlottesville, Va.) — Five years after the 2017 “Unite the Right” white supremacist attacks on Charlottesville, individuals in Charlottesville and other communities still suffer daily from the harm of those attacks. Disrupting the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rallies on August 11-12 2017 took embodied actions by real people. The white supremacists did not get to hold their rally on August 12 because community members shut it down. Many antiracist community members suffered terrible physical and mental trauma. That will never go away, but we can help each other to heal. Survivors need financial help for medical expenses, therapy, and other support.
Donate directly to help survivors of the 2017 white supremacist attacks at this link, through the local group Congregate Charlottesville: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/a11a12support
“Charlottesville is not just a hashtag. The attacks on our community were not a singular event in the distant past. Resisting white supremacy is an ongoing struggle. We are still here in Charlottesville, fighting fascism and confronting centuries of white supremacist harm. Join us in taking care of each other!” –Lisa Woolfork, Charlottesville Community Member
“Any victories we’ve earned over white supremacy have been because regular everyday people were willing to get in the streets and confront white supremacy. Disruption works. Protest works. Our racist confederate statues are finally gone. We owe these wins to all the folks who came together to take action.” – Christina Rivera, Co-President Congregate Charlottesville and Unitarian Universalist minister
“Survivors are still suffering to this day. Some have lifelong physical complications as a result of the attack. Many have undergone multiple surgeries, treatments, and therapies. By giving to the fund you can help support, protect and care for our brave community members." –Anna Malinowski, survivor, and organizer with Showing Up for Racial Justice Charlottesville
In 2017, the local organization Congregate Charlottesville served as a conduit for resources and financial help from around the world to directly help the survivors of the white supremacist attacks. Survivors are grateful for the support then, but still need our help. The effects of that summer reverberate through our community and survivors face lifelong healing. Please donate what you can to the Congregate Charlottesville fundraiser and spread the word, to help survivors who are still dealing with the traumatic effects of showing up against white supremacy.
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 23, 2021
Media Contact: Congregate Cville
congregatecville@gmail.com
Charlottesville Anti-Racist Activists’ Statement
Following the Verdict in the Sines v. Kessler Trial
(Charlottesville, Va.) — Following today’s verdict in federal court at the Sines v. Kessler trial, the undersigned anti-racist groups affirm their solidarity, love, rage, and commitment to continuing the fight against white supremacy in all of its forms. We honor the plaintiffs in the trial, all of whom showed up for our community on August 11th and 12th, 2017 (A11/A12). These plaintiffs were subject to further abuse from the white supremacist defendants during the trial itself. We ask everyone to continue to support all of the survivors (including Black and Brown community members), many of whom have ongoing trauma. The effects of A11/A12 reverberate through our community and the survivors face a lifelong healing process. A11/A12 survivors need our help for medical expenses, therapy, and other support due to the white nationalist attacks of August 2017. Please donate to the fund for A11/A12 survivors at this link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/a11a12support.
While the focus has been on the court system and this trial, we emphasize that any victories we’ve earned over white supremacy have been because regular everyday people were willing to get in the streets and confront white supremacy. Disruption works. Protest works. Our racist confederate statues are finally gone. Many of the 2017 white supremacist groups have splintered and imploded.
We affirm our solidarity with other communities, such as Brunswick, Georgia, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, which are also being re-traumatized during their own extended courtroom trials. The courts cannot bring back Ahmaud Arbery, Anthony Huber, Joseph Rosenbaum, or Heather Heyer. The courts cannot fully heal the people who have been wounded by racist violence in Charlottesville, Kenosha, Brunswick, and everywhere else. Let us honor the people--the survivors and witnesses--who have participated in these trials, while we recommit to preventing white supremacist violence from happening in the first place. Join us in continuing the work of dismantling white supremacy in all its forms. In solidarity, we can win!
Using the courts to impact white supremacists’ financial ability to commit further harm is only one of many tools and tactics. Everyone can participate in this fight. In Charlottesville, we are continuing the anti-racist work in many ways:
Advocating for housing justice - which is racial justice - within the city’s Future Land Use Map;
Demanding accountability at our local school boards to ensure the presence of anti-racist curricula and policies;
Working toward defunding the local police (who cooperated with the white supremacists in August 2017);
Advocating for immigrant rights and justice;
Physically transforming the toppled racist confederate monuments into emblems of justice and healing;
Building mutual aid networks to impact food justice and community care
We’ve shown up. You can too. Show up to your city council, school board, and jail board meetings. Create mutual aid networks. Build alternatives to policing. Participate in protests and disruption. Together, we can win the fight against fascism.
Congregate Charlottesville
Black Lives Matter Charlottesville
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Charlottesville
Take ‘Em Down Cville
Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
Charlottesville Beyond Policing (CVBP)
Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America
Beloved Community Cville
Indivisible Charlottesville
Cville Cares
Cville Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2021
Media Contact: Christina Rivera, Congregate Charlottesville Co-President
Charlottesville groups express support and solidarity ahead of Sines v. Kessler trial
(Charlottesville, Va.) -- Four years ago, white supremacists planned and carried out violence and murder in and against the Charlottesville community. Since that time, Charlottesville antiracists have continued to fight racism in all its forms. To dismantle white supremacy, we must go beyond prosecuting white supremacists in court and commit to holding accountable those who claim to want change but refuse to take risks to alter the racist status quo. Transformation at its roots requires everyone in our community to take action and to take risk to stop white supremacist violence - to be actively antiracist and actively antifascist.
The weeks of the Sines v. Kessler trial will be re-traumatizing for many in our community as well as for those who have moved away. During the trial we will revisit, in graphic detail, the events of August 11-12, 2017, the summer preceding it, and the aftermath of that weekend. We ask those who oppose racism to join us in solidarity, supporting each other and the plaintiffs in the Sines v. Kessler trial. We will protect the safety and well-being of those risking their comfort and their lives to dismantle white supremacy.
Congregate Charlottesville
Black Lives Matter Charlottesville
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Charlottesville
Take ‘Em Down Cville
Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County
Charlottesville Beyond Policing (CVBP)
Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America
Beloved Community Cville
Indivisible Charlottesville
Cville Cares
###