The Bronx leader of the Black Lives Matter group is leading a coalition in a Friday march from New York City to Washington, D.C.
The march, which Hawk Newsome says will be one of “love,” will end with an Aug. 12 protest to mark the one-year anniversary of the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
The white supremacist group and its supporters will also be in Washington for the anniversary.
“Our goal is not to confront them physically, but to create a wave of love around them,” Newsome told the New York Daily News, “to say there is no place in our society for bigoted hate groups.”
The 2017 rally in Charlottesville included alt-right groups, neo-Confederates, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis who gathered there to protest the removal of Confederate monuments in the city.
The clash between white supremacists and counterprotesters resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
“It was a war zone,” Newsome said.
Newsome said rallies will be held in different cities during the journey to Washington, ending in a rally at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in the nation’s capital.
Jason Kessler, the primary organizer of the Charlottesville rally, will be hosting a “white civil rights” rally at Lafayette Square near the White House at the same time, which was approved by the National Park Service.
However, a permit for the Kessler even has yet to be issued.
Kessler sued the city of Charlottesville earlier this month for denying him a permit to hold an event to commemorate the 2017 rally — though he withdrew the lawsuit Tuesday.
On Twitter, Kessler said the Unite the Right rally will be “focusing exclusively on Washington DC on August 12th.”
“We must come together and demand that each citizen take action to end hatred in all its forms,” Newsome said in an announcement, adding that Black Lives Matter rallies and march will “demonstrate how the principles of love and unity can overcome hatred.”
“Through passive, nonviolent behavior and messages of love on the march route, we are very clearly not seeking confrontation with anyone,” he said. “[This] will be remembered in history as the day that Americans of all colors and religions united against hate to say, ‘There is no place for bigotry and racism in America.’”
