President Joe Biden is marking the fourth anniversary of the white supremacist rally at Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a lengthy statement on Thursday, Biden said, “Four years ago today in Charlottesville, Virginia the battle for the soul of America was laid bare for all to see.”
“The forces of hate and violence were summoned from the shadows as Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists descended on a historic American city. With torches in their hands and veins bulging from their necks, they spewed the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s and with the same beatings and bigotry we saw in Jim Crow America for nearly a century,” he continued.
He added, “But what they didn’t account for was the extraordinary force of American goodness and decency. In that moment and as we’ve seen throughout our history, Americans of different races, religions, and backgrounds stood ground and stayed true to the promise of our nation: that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.”
The president recalled the killing of Heather Heyer when a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
“Her life and activism are reminders that while we have never fully lived up to the promise of America, we have never fully walked away from it either,” he said.
He went on to note that what transpired in Charlottesville four years ago “motivated me to run for president and now motivates my Administration’s work to ensure that hate has no safe harbor in America.”
Biden shared some of the actions he took since taking office to advance racial equity but noted that “there is more work we must do as a nation.”
“We must acknowledge what America’s intelligence community has already confirmed, and what Charlottesville and so many other communities know all too well: the most lethal terrorist threat to our homeland in recent years has been domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy. We cannot ignore it. We must confront the spread of hate-fueled violence in every form,” he said.
He also said Charlottesville is “an example of how this is the work of all of us” as he noted religious leaders who held a prayer service the night before the rally and marched in the streets the following day.
“When the Neo-Nazi marchers passed Charlottesville’s only synagogue, Beth Israel, the congregation continued worship services, stood up to the hate, and helped their neighbors. And we should never forget the courage of that small group of University of Virginia students who stared down the mob and did not flinch.”
Finally, Biden said, “While it may come with enormous pain and cost, the greatness of America is that at our best, we meet President Lincoln’s appeal to embrace the ‘better angels of our nature.’ That’s what we must do – together – to win this battle for the soul of America.”
