The Charlottesville Syllabus: Educating the Public about White Supremacy in Charlottesville

Many in Charlottesville were shocked on August 11 when a torch-bearing procession of white supremacists marched on the Grounds of the University of Virginia to intimidate the University community with racist slogans, and on August 12 when—after a rally by white nationalists in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park—a driver mowed down a gathering of counter-protesters, injuring many and killing paralegal Heather Heyer.

But should these events have been so surprising? The Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation has created The Charlottesville Syllabus to make everyone aware that Charlottesville is not the liberal safe-haven from racism some believe it to be, and that the city has its own history of tolerance for, and complicity with, white supremacy. “With resources selected and summaries written by UVA graduate students, this abridged version of the Syllabus is organized into six sections that offer contemporary and archival primary and secondary sources (articles, books, responses, a documentary, databases) and a list of important terms for discussing white supremacy.”

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