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Why Hate Came to the Progressive City of Charlottesville

by Associated Press

   CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA --

   The white nationalists behind last weekend's violent rally found an
   appealing target in the historic town of Charlottesville, Virginia.

   That's where Thomas Jefferson founded a university and where an
   outspoken, progressive mayor declared his city the "capital of the
   resistance" to President Donald Trump.

   For more than a year, the Charlottesville government has also been
   engaged in contentious public soul searching over its Confederate
   monuments. The process led to the decision to remove a statue of
   General Robert E. Lee.

   All those factors made Charlottesville a symbolically powerful backdrop
   for what's considered the largest white nationalist gathering in at
   least a decade.

   Mayor Mike Signer say the city's debate about race made it a target for
   people "who don't want to change the narrative."