KKK and Black Lives Matter hold opposing rallies in Charlottesville

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer has 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.

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.”