The National Park Service on Wednesday approved the application for a “white civil rights rally” to take place across from the White House on August 11th and 12th—the anniversary weekend of 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The permit request for the Lafayette Square event was submitted by Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Charlottesville rally, after he was denied permission to hold another rally in Charlottesville, according to the New York Times. For the application’s stated purpose, Kessler wrote “white civil rights rally” and “protesting civil rights abuse in Charlottesville.” He estimated an attendance of 400 people.
The August of 2017 rally was a gathering of far-right, white nationalist, and extremist groups—as well as counter-protesters—to protest the removal of Confederate monuments, both in Charlottesville and across the nation. President Donald Trump infuriated many by initially saying “I think there is blame on both sides,” when responding to the rally.
During the event, one anti-racist protester was killed when James Alex Fields Jr., an avowed neo-Nazi from Ohio, drove his car into her. He was charged with second-degree murder, according to the Times.
