freedomrally in d.c.'s plaza was held to protest the "unite the right" rally for white nationalists taking place later today in lafayette park. the rally comes one year after a similar event in charlottesville, virginia. we will bring that to you live on c-span starting at 5:30 p.m. eastern. >> joining us, the bureau chief in the virginia public radio virginia, in charlottesville. she was in charlottesville last year during the demonstration. thank you for joining us this morning. we read a bit about the events from last night, some of the protests going on. where do things stand this morning? >> the protesters finally broke

up last night, around 9:30. they started out at the rotunda, the iconic building at the university of virginia. the university put so many fences around and had so many police surrounding the area that the protesters were uncomfortable. in fact, the focus of the protest was the militarization of the city. they decided they would just move away, so they started marching across campus and into neighborhoods around campus and continued into the downtown area and the statue of robert e lee that the city wants to remove, all tied up in court right now, and at that oink police indicated that they would begin making arrests -- at that point, police indicated they would begin making arrests. so far they have not returned, but a good bet some of them will be back. >> where were you in terms of the events of september 12 2017? how did you see things developing? >> we really did not know what

to expect. we saw a lot of frightening language online, threats being made, people saying things like, bring your guns, we are going to charlottesville for blood. it was a little unnerving, and we did not know if our police department was prepared, even our state police, for a situation like this. charlottesville is a small city, about 50,000 people, so there's not a lot of money for training. thaty event, we went into situation with a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of hope that there would not be violence. there were many, many people who showed up and work there as a force for peace. a lot of religious people, for example. but there were a lot of unknowns. >> here we are one year later, august 12, 2018, asking our viewers this morning about race relations in their community. a headline from the daily progress going back to 2014.

december 2014, charlottesville community police-race relations in need of repair, say activists . how do you see things between the community of police, and what specific steps have been taken since last august. guest: good question. this has been an ongoing problem in charlottesville. we are a southern state, and even though we are a university town, this university town has a history of slavery, and post-civil war repression of the african-american community. so it is an ongoing story, and people today are rallying around a demand that things finally get better, that they begin to have a better relationship with the police. for the first time, charlottesville established a police review board, a group of citizens who will review complaints about police conduct. as you probably know, the city, after 2017, elected an

african-american woman who ran as an independent, with no previous political experience, but she won handily, which is unusual in charlottesville, a city of democrats. she was elected, and the city council which chooses its mayor selected her for the job. i think in part because our council meetings had become so crazy, there was so much fighting going on, catcalls from the audience, that i think there was a feeling that nikuyah walker, the candidate, might be able to control the passions of the crowd. in fact, even she has had difficulty. but i would say there's a lot more discussion now at city council about issues of race, issues of great interest to the african-american community in particular, affordable housing and police conduct. host: you touched on this briefly, but the status of the statue of robert e. lee. you said it was tied up in litigation.

where does that stand? guest: that's right. of course, there are many civil war buffs, people who believe the statue is history and should not come down, so when the city voted to take the statue down, also to remove a statue of stonewall jackson, these groups went to court and sued, so it is wending its way through the legal process. last night when demonstrators rallied around the statue, one of their demands was that it be removed. host: do you know of specific plans for today, in charlottesville? this group said, that rallied last night is supposed to rally again today. on a happier note, there will be a very large gathering in charlottesville's park, an arts park. about 400 people are expected to gather there to sing songs of unity. "we are the world," "hallelujah,

" to sing because they want the world to know what happened in charlottesville last year was not in any way a representation of the city. charlottesville, for all of the racial problems we have had, is i would say for the most part a liberal and well-meeting place, and like so many -- well-meaning place, and like so many cities in america, we are trying to work things out, trying to find a way to live harmoniously, to celebrate diversity, and that performance will be part of the effort. host: so, among the ways the city is trying to heal. how about the ongoing efforts? guest: there have been a lot of discussions. i think the city council is really struggling. you sit in the meetings, and it is really painful. there is a lot of bickering on the board, a lot of cat calling from the audience during the public comment period. we have folks get into the microphone, criticizing individual council members.

i guess in the fullness of time we might say that change is never easy, and this sort of discomfort is inevitable, but certainly there's a lot of consciousness being raised in charlottesville. i think people are more aware that the black community is not happy, the black community in charlottesville, since i have moved here 10 years ago, had seemed rather quiet, and now we start to see more young african-american community leaders come forward with complaints. among other things, they refer to the university of virginia as "the plantation." soy of them do work at uva, one of their targets is the university and demands for a living wage. host: we have not touched on that at all. the university in charlottesville, what has the university done in the wake of last year's violence and protests? guest: there have been statements from the administration expressing

regrets for what happened last year, expressing opposition to white supremacy, obviously. yesterday morning, the new president of the university, jim ryan, spoke to a group of perhaps 300 or 400. humility,e was one of i would say. this is the first time, if i'm not mistaken, we have heard an actual apology from the university, if we can call it that. what he said to the students who confronted white supremacists as they marched across the lawn on the 11th of august was, i'm sorry, we're sorry. it could just be an expression of regret, i feel bad that happened, but it could also be something of an admission that the university failed. the critics say the university , if it had taken a tougher stand with the marchers on the 11th, we might not have seen the violence we saw on the 12th.

that those tiki torch carrying white supremacists were emboldened by the failure of the university to stop them. host: the charlottesville bureau chief for virginia public radio. you can follow their reporting radio.n twitter, wvtf thanks so much for joining us this morning. guest: my pleasure. host: throughout the program, hearing from other voices. devin next by skype from fergus as the university of missouri, history and black studies professor, joining us to talk about race relations in the st. louis area, particularly in the four years since the shooting of michael brown in ferguson. professor, thanks for being with us this morning. what are your thoughts on that community, the broader st. louis community in terms of race relations, where these things stand four years hence? guest: sure.

thanks for having me this morning, although i wish it would be under happier events. so, as you mentioned, the ferguson shooting, killing of michael brown happened four years ago. he's part of a larger sort of context, i think. as the doj reported in 2015, noted, law enforcement in ferguson, also in greater st. louis, in the st. louis suburbs, see designed, trying to citizens as targets of extraction. so what happened with the michael brown case, with his shooting, was part of that broader context in which law enforcement