Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-16 19:18:26|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The violent white supremacist rally Saturday in the eastern U.S. town of Charlottesville that ended in bloodshed has reignited a political firestorm over U.S. race relations.

On Aug. 12, thousands of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and right-wing protesters staged a rally in Charlottesville, a historic college town in Virginia, and clashed with groups that oppose them. A sports car ploughed into a group of counter-white supremacist protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others.

A state police helicopter that helped monitor the Saturday situation crashed later, killing two troopers on board.

James Alex Fields Jr., the suspect who drove the car, was denied bail and charged with second-degree murder Monday.

People of other U.S. cities mourned for the victims, and held rallies protesting the violent incident in Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.

The deadly violence in Virginia is not a rare case to be seen in the country where racial divide still keeps tearing the society apart. Major racial riots occurred now and then in the United States in recent years.

In April 2001, riots were sparked in Cincinnati after African American Timothy Thomas, 19, was fatally shot by officer Steve Roach. Tensions between African Americans and police erupted into a four-night rioting in the city, with rioters throwing objects at police, vandalizing and looting business before a curfew effectively ended the unrest.

The Oakland riots in July 2010 were related to a white policeman shooting dead an unarmed African American on New Year's Day of 2009 at a train station in the West Coast port city.

Prosecutors accused policeman Johannes Mehserle of intentionally firing gunshots as he tried to handcuff Oscar J. Grant III. After the jury rejected the prosecution of murder, and convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter, hundreds of people took to streets in July 2010. At least 78 demonstrators were arrested after confrontations with local police.

In July 2012, protestors clashed with police over two separate shootings in the city of Anaheim, southern California. Manuel Diaz, 25, and Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, who were claimed by the police as known gang members, were shot dead by police officers.

Protesters set fires, smashed windows and threw rocks at officers. The riots ended with 24 arrests and several injuries.

The Ferguson protests in 2014 in the midwestern United States gained huge attention within the country.

On Aug. 9, 18-year-old African American Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, sparking over two weeks of unrest and clashes between protesters and law enforcement in the town where most of the population are black.

Brown was accused by Ferguson police of robbing a convenience store shortly before he was shot dead.

The Baltimore riots in April 2015 were linked with Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American who died after he was injured in police custody. Gray's death on April 12 sparked protests and riots in the city in northeastern United States, and triggered a nationwide debate over excessive use of force by police dealing with cases involving African Americans.

Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to address the escalating violence and unrest in Baltimore City following Gray's funeral.

On Aug. 13, 2016, a confrontation between police and protestors turned violent in Milwaukee in the north central U.S. state of Wisconsin, after a police officer shot and killed an armed 23-year-old African American man when he was trying to flee from two police officers who had stopped his car. The turmoil lasted for three days and many people including the police got injured.

On Sept. 20, 2016, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African American, was fatally shot by the police in the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, southeastern United States.

The shooting immediately sparked protests by African Americans against racial discrimination and injustice by police against black people. The protests turned violent as rioters clashed with police, damaged properties, and even assaulted innocent people and journalists. More than a dozen police officers were wounded and 44 rioters were arrested in those days.