Were all of the counterprotesters nonviolent?

No. A complete picture of the violence that took place in Charlottesville is still unfolding, as those who were arrested face an array of charges and more photographs and videos emerge from the chaotic scenes. After a car barreled into a crowd of counterprotesters and killed a 32-year-old woman, the organizer of the “Unite the Right” rally, Jason Kessler, was heckled, punched and forced to flee a news conference by an angry crowd.

Groups that identify as anti-fascist — also known as antifa (pronounced an-TEE-fa) — have been physically confronting neo-Nazis, white supremacists and, in some cases, speakers who merely challenge the boundaries of political correctness on college campuses across the country.

In Charlottesville, about 20 members of a group called the Redneck Revolt, which describes itself as an anti-racist, anti-capitalist group dedicated to uniting working-class whites and oppressed minorities, carried rifles and formed a security perimeter around the counterprotesters in Justice Park, according to its website and social media.

The group, which admires John Brown, a white abolitionist who led an armed insurrection in 1859, issued a “call to arms” on its website: “To the fascists and all who stand with them, we’ll be seeing you in Virginia.”

The scholar and activist Cornel West told the newscast “Democracy Now!” that anti-fascists saved his life and the lives of other nonviolent clergy members in Charlottesville. “We would have been crushed like cockroaches were it not for the anarchists and the anti-fascists,” he said on the show. “You had police holding back and just allowing fellow citizens to go at each other.”

Some conservatives have called for a condemnation of anti-fascists who shout down or physically confront their adversaries. On Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence pledged to bring “the full resources of the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the violence that ensued yesterday in Charlottesville.” But in addition to condemning bigotry, he said President Trump had “made clear that behavior by others of different militant perspectives are also unacceptable in our political debate and discourse,” remarks that appeared to leave the door open for counterprotesters accused of violence to face prosecution.

Where will counterprotests go from here?

Groups that say they feel compelled to stand up for the rights of white people and for free speech insist that they will not be cowed by anti-fascists. Counterprotesters, including antifa groups, have, in turn, vowed to continue to confront them. Some on the left say confronting the far right gives white nationalists exactly the attention and violent street theater they want. But with several far-right demonstrations planned, there is no indication the counterprotesters are going away.