Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism

by Terry McAuliffe, John Lewis (Contribution by)

Overview

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The former governor of Virginia tells the behind-the-scenes story of the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville—and shows how we can prevent other Charlottesvilles from happening.

When Governor Terry McAuliffe hung up the phone on the afternoon of the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, he was sure Donald Trump would do the right thing as president: condemn the white supremacists who’d descended on the college town and who’d caused McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency that morning. He didn’t. Instead Trump declared there was “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” Trump was condemned from many sides himself, even by many Republicans, but the damage was done. He’d excused and thus egged on the terrorists at the moment when he could have stopped them in their tracks.

In Beyond Charlottesville, McAuliffe looks at the forces and events that led to the tragedy in Charlottesville, including the vicious murder of Heather Heyer and the death of two state troopers in a helicopter accident. He doesn’t whitewash Virginia history and discusses a KKK protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. He takes a hard real-time behind-the-scenes look at the actions of everyone on that fateful August 12, including himself, to see what could have been done. He lays out what was done afterwards to prevent future Charlottesvilles—and what still needs to be done as America in general and Virginia in particular continue to grapple with their history of racism.

Beyond Charlottesville will be the definitive account of an infamous chapter in our history, seared indelibly into memory, sure to be cited for years as a crucial reference point in the long struggle to fight racism, extremism and hate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250245878
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/30/2019
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

TERRY MCAULIFFE served as Governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018 and as Chair of the National Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. A former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, from 2001 to 2005, McAuliffe’s first book, What A Party! (Thomas Dunne Books) hit #5 on the New York Times list and #1 on the Washington Post list.
Congressman John Lewis was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. He is co-author of the first comics work ever to win the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel memoir trilogy MARCH, written with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell. He is also the recipient of numerous awards from national and international institutions including the Lincoln Medal, the John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage" Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NAACP Spingarn Medal, among many others. He lives in Atlanta, GA.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Congressman John Lewis
Flashback: Saturday Afternoon, August 12, 2017
Chapter 1: A Virginian by Choice
Chapter 2: Voting Rights
Chapter 3: A New President
Chapter 4: The Robert E. Lee Statue
Chapter 5: Preparing for Trouble
Chapter 6: Friday, August 11
Chapter 7: Saturday Morning, August 12
Chapter 8: Saturday Afternoon, August 12
Chapter 9: Sunday, August 13
Chapter 10: Immediate Fallout
Chapter 11: Practical Lessons Learned
Chapter 12: Rallying Cry
Epilogue: A Time for Action

Editorial Reviews

2019-05-12
The former Virginia governor looks back at the tragedy in Charlottesville in August 2017, which showed that "we are a divided nation today stuck in the past."

McAuliffe (What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals, 2007) briefly recounts his time as the chair of the Democratic National Committee before devoting most of the book to his term as governor and especially the events in Charlottesville. A native of upstate New York, the author struggled to win election in a tradition-bound Southern state. After winning the governorship, he acted quickly to enhance democracy by resisting a Republican-dominated legislature and a state Supreme Court dominated by justices seeking to maintain the status quo. McAuliffe's most substantive early accomplishment involved restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 felons, many of them people of color, who had completed their prison sentences. The governor's determination to remove statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy played a role in white nationalist demonstrations that threatened to turn into race-based violence. During the most publicized of these demonstrations, on August 11-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, McAuliffe had hoped that officials in the iconic college town would listen to advice from the governor's security experts about minimizing violence. However, local police tactics proved ineffective, resulting in a death and many injuries. The author offers a detailed account of what went wrong during those two days, and he provides additional perspective on what he considers a shameful response by Donald Trump, in which the president once again relied on "his all-sides-are-to-blame nonsense." Until Trump ran for president as a Republican, McAuliffe had always known him as a Democrat. As the narrative progresses, the author's lack of respect for Trump becomes abundantly clear. After Trump fanned hatred following Charlottesville, McAuliffe spoke forcefully and repeatedly about the cancer of white nationalism—and continues to do so.

A straightforward mix of inspiration and concrete action items for fighting white supremacy.

Kirkus Reviews