WASHINGTON — The hundreds of counterprotesters who congregated in Lafayette Park on Sunday, just steps away from the White House, dwarfed the fewer than 20 people who showed up for the second Unite the Right rally, a gathering aimed to bring together multiple white nationalist organizations. In total thousands took to the streets to protest the group's presence and purpose.

Jason Kessler, the white nationalist organizer of the Unite the Right rally, was accompanied by a few dozen people when he arrived at the Vienna, Virginia, subway station at about 2 p.m. ET. There they boarded three train cars and went to the Foggy Bottom stop in Washington.

But when they arrived, their number appeared to have dwindled to fewer than 20 individuals — though Kessler acquired a permit that allowed for up to 400. The entire event appeared haphazard, disorganized and did not carry a clear message. First it began well before the intended 5 p.m. ET start time, then organizers decided to depart early when it started to rain across the nation's capital.

“We won!” shouted Shanie Yates, 36, who traveled from Virginia and was determined to attend this year’s protest after watching what unfolded in Charlottesville a year ago. “That hit home for me — and I wanted to show strength in numbers. Look at all of us showing that we have love for one another, not hate.”

Thelmiah Lee, 67, said he was also proud to see a diverse swath of people willing to stand out in the rain for as long as they had to.

“They shouldn’t have bothered showing up,” he said of the Unite the Right rally.

A year ago, hundreds of white nationalists and anti-fascist counterprotesters clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the first Unite the Right event — or "white civil rights rally" — that Kessler organized. Heather Heyer, 32, a civil rights activist, was killed when James Alex Fields Jr. plowed through a crowd of counterprotesters on Aug. 12 of last year.

Members of Kessler’s group told journalists at the Virginia metro station that they were a “tool of the Zionist media.” With their faces covered, the Unite the Right rally attendees also announced that they were the “founding stock” of the United States and claimed they were more American than non-whites. Most kept their faces covered with large American flags and declined to give their full names when approached by members of the media — far different from last year's very open display.

When Kessler's group finally arrived at 3:30 p.m., fewer than 20 people remained. They were greeted by counterprotesters shouting, "Nazis, go home!" and "you are not welcome here!"

A few rallygoers waved at the counterprotesters nonchalantly, earning jeers from the much larger crowd.

The police held a line between the white nationalists and the counterprotesters, who were separated by fences and about 50 feet of grass.

“We have people coming to our city for the sole purpose of spewing hate,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement Sunday. “It didn't make sense last year, and it doesn't make sense now.”

When an emcee told the counterprotesters in Washington that Kessler had boarded a train from Virginia and was on his way to the city, many began to boo.