When Governor Terry McAuliffe hung up the phone on the afternoon of the violent "Unite the Right" rally, he was sure Trump would do the right thing and condemn the white supremacists who’d descended on Charlottesville. Instead Trump declared there was "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides." Trump was condemned from many sides himself, but the damage was done. He’d excused the terrorists and, thus, egged them on when he could have stopped them in their tracks.
In Beyond Charlottesville, McAuliffe looks at the forces and events that led to tragedy in the college town, including the vicious murder of Heather Heyer and the death of two state troopers in a helicopter crash. He doesn’t whitewash Virginia history, and he discusses a KKK protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. He takes a hard real-time behind-the-scenes look at the actions of everyone on that fateful day of August 12, including his own, to see what could have been done differently. He lays out what was done afterwards to prevent future Charlottesvilles—and what still needs to be done as America in general and Virginia in particular continue to grapple with their history of racism.
Beyond Charlottesville will be the definitive account of an infamous chapter in our history sure to be cited for years as a crucial reference point in the long struggle to fight racism, extremism and hate.
