In August of 2015, a group by the name of “Minnesota 10,000 for Southern Heritage”, received a permit to rally at the capitol in support of the confederate flag.

A facebook event to counter-protest the permitted confederate flag rally, named Unity Against White Supremacy & the Confederate Flag, and organized by the IWW GDC (Industrial Workers of the World | General Defense Committee), drew the RSVP of over 400 people.

On the early morning of Saturday, September 5th, 2015, the counter-protest marched to the capitol from a location close to the site of Marcus Golden’s death by the bullets of St. Paul police officers.

Before the march took off to the capitol, a speaker announced that the confederate flag rally had been cancelled and that the action was victorious in not allowing space for racists.

While reaching the Christopher Columbus statue on capitol grounds, the crowd chanted of “tear it down”, referring to the statue, which is a representation of white supremacy to many of the participants.

Speakers ranging from Black Lives Matter organizers to Native Lives Matter to IWW and others spoke about the importance of collectively combating racism while a confederate flag was torn apart and burned.