After a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent, groups in Ohio are coming together for a solidarity march.

On 12 August, white nationalists took to the streets of Charlottesville, VA to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general during the Civil War. The march, called the ‘Unite the Right Rally,’ was met with counter protesters standing up against the racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression that the Right seems to endorse.

The protests turned violent, even causing Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency.

James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old from Ohio, was arrested for driving his car into a group of counter protesters, leaving one woman dead and 19 other people injured.

Responding to the hate

But Erick Bellomy, an Ohio resident, wants the rest of the country to know that even though he’s from the same state as Fields, they come from different worlds.

On 13 August, Stop Trump Columbus and other organizations including Columbus DSA, Yes We Can Columbus, Columbus Citizens for Police Review, Indivisible, and ISO Columbus are coming together at Goodale Park to support the victims of the Charlottesville attack. The groups will march from the park to the Ohio State House.

Bellomy is the organizer of the impromptu event.

‘A march, especially in Ohio (where the attacker is from) will show Charlottesville that we do not support any racism, fascism, HATE that came from [Fields] or any of the other Supremacists that attended the alt right rally,’ Bellomy tells GSN.

‘These bigots target People of Color, Women, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ People, Immigrants, Liberals and anyone else who doesn’t agree with them, not just with words but violence. It’s absolutely disgusting and that type of HATE is not accepted here,’ he continues.

There is a Facebook page for the event and one can RSVP to the event here.

To those who can’t attend the event, Bellomy hopes they will keep the victims of the Charlottesville attack in their thoughts.