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KKK and Black Lives Matter hold opposing rallies in Charlottesville (WATCH LIVE) Police detain six as KKK rally meets counter protest in Charlottesville - RT witness (WATCH LIVE)
(35 minutes later)
Officials have called for calm ahead of Ku Klux Klan and Black Lives Matter protests at a park in Charlottesville, Virginia. At least half a dozen people have been detained in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Black Lives Matter supporters and members of a Ku Klux Klan group have engaged in a public standoff, according to a reporter from RT.
The dual protest comes after the city council decided to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a park and rename the area ‘Emancipation Park’. The monument has been on the site since the 1920s.
The protests come after Charlottesville City Council decided to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a public park and rename the area ‘Emancipation Park’. The “imposing equestrian monument” of the general has been on the site, once known as Lee Park, since the 1920s. Furious members of KKK group the Loyal White Knights have now turned out to Charlottesville’s Justice Park to protest the move.
Now, furious members of KKK group the Loyal White Knights say they will “make a stand for our southern history” by gathering in downtown Charlottesville at 3pm local time. “[On] July 8th in Virginia we will make a stand for our southern history. They are trying to erase whites and our great culture right out of the history books,” a statement on the group’s website reads.
Klan members will reportedly arm themselves for the rally in the open carry state. The group has accused authorities of “trying to erase white and our great culture right out of the history books.” In response, members of Black Lives Matter movement and the Charlottesville Showing Up for Racial Justice group have gathered in the same park to oppose their message.
Meanwhile, a group of local religious leaders from the Charlottesville Clergy Collective plan to hold a gathering at which people are invited to pray and sing in nearby Justice Park to counter the KKK rally. RT reporter Alexander Rubinstein has said at least six people have been detained by police officers at the standoff.  
Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer has urged people not to take notice of the Loyal White Knight’s “putrid bait”. Footage from the rally shows Klan members giving white power salutes while supporters of the counter demo chant “Black Lives Matter.”
The Loyal White Knights say they “do not hate any group of people” but do hate homosexuality and “race-mixing.”
“We do hate some things that certain groups are doing to our race and our nation,” the website reads. “We hate drugs, homosexuality, abortion and race-mixing, because these things go against God’s law and they are destroying all white nations.”   
Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer had urged people not to take notice of the Loyal White Knight’s “putrid bait”.
“They only thing they seem to want is division and confrontation and a twisted kind of celebrity,” he said.“They only thing they seem to want is division and confrontation and a twisted kind of celebrity,” he said.
Black Lives Matter and the Charlottesville Showing Up For Racial Justice group are also expected to hold a ‘Bloc KKK Party’.
On the group’s website, the Loyal White Knights say they “do not hate any group of people” but do hate homosexuality and “race-mixing.”
“We do hate some things that certain groups are doing to our race and our nation,”  the website reads. “We hate drugs, homosexuality, abortion and race-mixing, because these things go against God’s law and they are destroying all white nations.”