Members of Black Lives Matter DMV participate in the annual Martin Luther King Holiday Peace Walk and Parade January 18, 2016 in Washington, DC. Photo : Alex Wong ( Getty Images )

The Washington D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter is planning to counter protest the stupidly-named “White Civil Rights Rally” scheduled to be held near the White House at Lafayette Park on Aug. 12, which is also the anniversary of the deadly white supremacist rally that was held in Charlottesville, Va.


According to Fox5DC, Shut It Down DC, will also be helping to organize the protest.

“We are calling all anti-fascists and people of good conscience to participate in international days of action August 10 through August 12 and a mass mobilization in Washington, D.C.,” a note on Shut It Down DC’s website reads. “This is for Heather Heyer, Corey Long, Deandre Harris, ICE abolition, open borders, dismantling the prison industrial complex and ending the settler colonial system. We will confront fascism, antisemitism, islamophobia, white supremacy and state violence on August 10-12.”


Heather Heyer, of course, is the 32-year-old woman who was killed after a driver drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at the Charlottesville rally. Both Corey Long and Deandre Harris were also victims of violence (Long was shot at while Harris was viciously beaten) at the rally, but somehow both ended up facing charges. All charges against Harris were eventually dropped. Long was found guilty of disorderly conduct for fashioning a flame-thrower in an attempt to defend himself and sentenced to 360 days (though all but 20 were suspended.)

Last month the rally was announced after the National Park Service approved an application for it to be held. Jason Kessler, who organized the infamous Unite the Right Rally last year is also behind the Lafayette Square protest.

“This year we have a new purpose,” Kessler said of the upcoming rally. “That’s to talk about the civil rights abuse that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.”

Of course, given what happened last year, Black Lives Matter DC has expressed concern for the well-being of the counterprotesters and plan to have training classes available to attendees to address those concerns.


“We are stronger than they are, that they are resistant to change and to progress that Black Lives Matter has been doing over the last four years with black liberation and fighting racism and fascism,” Black Lives Matter DC’s Makia Green told Fox5DC. “So it’s important that we let D.C. and rest of the world know that we are not going to stand for the hate.”