CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Thousands of people gathered on the University of Virginia campus here Wednesday night in the glow of candlelight, striking a peaceful contrast to the torches wielded by white supremacists on Friday.

Marchers — many of them college students — sang hymns, gospel songs and other anthems of belonging, including “This Land Is Your Land,” “Lean on Me” and “This Little Light of Mine.”

The vigil was largely organized by word of mouth, and its leaders strove to keep the plans off social media. The result was a warm gathering that provided some small measure of relief to a college town left in turmoil by the weekend’s events, in which a rally on Saturday organized by white nationalists devolved into a series of street fights and ended in the death of a local woman.