Terry McAuliffe has a book coming out this summer that will detail the events and fallout following the clashes in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
The former governor of Virginia will tell the story of the explosive day in Aug. 2017 when white supremacist rally-goers clashed with counterprotesters in Charlottesville in a fight over whether a Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee should be removed.
The book, “Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism,” will hit shelves July 16, 2019.
“There was so many lessons learned coming out of Charlottesville,” McAuliffe told Axios. “I had the front-row seat, calling the shots. Someone had to write it.”
McAuliffe said he hoped the president would “do the right thing” by condemning racism at the time, instead of blaming bad actors on “many sides.”
Word of McAuliffe’s book comes as some the state’s top Democrats are caught up in scandals, including race-related incidents.
Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has faced several calls to resign from his post after his medical school yearbook page was circulated that included an image of one individual in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood.
Northam maintains that he is not one of the individuals in the photograph and says he will not be stepping down from office, but instead will dedicate the rest of his three years as governor to fighting for racial equity in Virginia.
Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring, who is second in line to the governorship after embattled Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, also faced controversy after proactively admitting and apologizing for wearing blackface when dressing up as a black celebrity at a college party decades ago.
“It’s embarrassing,” McAuliffe, who has been working on his book for the better part of the last year, told Axios. “It’s a state that I’m very proud of.”
