The white nationalists behind last weekend's violent rally found an appealing target in the historic town of Charlottesville, Virginia.
That's where Thomas Jefferson founded a university and where an outspoken, progressive mayor declared his city the "capital of the resistance" to President Donald Trump.
For more than a year, the Charlottesville government has also been engaged in contentious public soul searching over its Confederate monuments. The process led to the decision to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee.
All those factors made Charlottesville a symbolically powerful backdrop for what's considered the largest white nationalist gathering in at least a decade.
Mayor Mike Signer say the city's debate about race made it a target for people "who don't want to change the narrative."
