In August 2017, the night before the infamous
Unite the Right rally, a group of non-student and mostly non-Virginian
white nationalists marched on the university's
Lawn bearing torches and chanting
antisemitic and
Nazi slogans after the city of
Charlottesville decided to remove all remaining
Confederate statues from the city including one depicting
Robert E. Lee. They were met by student counter-protesters near the statue of
Thomas Jefferson in front of the Rotunda, where a fight broke out.
