A group of white supremacists demonstrated at the historic Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania last Saturday to promote their views on immigration, healthcare, crime, and the American media.
A dozen members of Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group headquartered in Ohio, took to the field for two hours, waving flags and cheering for white pride. A young boy was also amongst their crowd.
They were met at the scene by approximately seventy protestors, individuals from various communist groups and human rights organizations, who responded to the taunts and cheers from the other side. Police barricades separated the two groups by roughly sixty yards, with policemen on horseback, in helicopters, and on foot. Unlike previous supremacist rallies, there were few spectators at the event and the action was mostly in the form of verbal aggression.
Aryan Nations attacked everyone from Jews to Mexicans with their messages of hate on the symbolic spot, saying that white was becoming an endangered race.
"[We're] waking up white America. Letting them know that we're not going to let Jewish media run us into the ground," said Paul Mullet, national director of Aryan Nations.
Mullet’s statement refers to the belief that Jews use their influence in media for self-serving reasons.
The rally took place on Juneteenth or Freedom Day, an American holiday honoring the day slavery was abolished in Texas and celebrating African-American heritage. The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the turning point in the American Civil War, when the North finally managed to curtail the South’s invading forces.
“I don't care if there are thousands of people out there, if one person heard what we had to say, and accept what we say, we've accomplished our mission," Mullet said.
Members of various faith-based organizations planned to re-consecrate the battlefield on Sunday.
