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Anti-Racism Protest Held Outside Minnesota GOP Headquarters

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A second rally was underway in Minneapolis Monday night in response to the violence in Charlottesville surrounding a gathering of white supremacist groups.

The anti-racism rally in Minneapolis began around 5 p.m. outside the Minnesota Republican Party office on Franklin Avenue. About 200 people were in attendance, and hundreds more were expected to join.

Organizers say the gathering is to show they are not afraid and will oppose racist attacks whenever and wherever they happen. The rally is one of many popping up all over the country in response to the deadly events surrounding the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.

Dave Biking, one of the organizers of Monday's protest in Minneapolis, is concerned that the violence that erupted in Virginia could happen in Minnesota.

"The good news is that while white supremacists have gotten stronger...the anti-racist movement is also growing and is much stronger, probably than it has ever been," Biking said.

The Rev. Steve Daniels Jr., of Shiloh Baptist Church is St. Paul, says deep racial divisions are nothing new in America.

"I grew up in Mississippi in the '50s and '60s," he said. "I lived it first-hand."

Daniels is a product of the Civil Rights movement and says the images from Charlottesville compare to his experiences growing up in the South -- experiences he never thought his children and grandchild would know.

"To know that America is supposed to be the moral compass for the world and here we are acting like we don't love each other...it is sad," he said.

Daniels says young people in his congregation are watching the events in Virginia, feeling hurt and outraged. The pastor says he's encouraging the youth to rally around a common goal with a commitment to nonviolence.

"You got to stand for one goal, for one cause...and work towards that," he said.

After gathering at GOP headquarters, protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis, briefly blocking traffic and light rail trains at several intersections.

On Sunday, Minnesotans gathered in Minneapolis to walk around a lake in solidarity with the counter-protesters who stood against the white supremacist groups in Charlottesville.

Amid the violence in Virginia over the weekend, a car driven by a suspected white nationalist plowed into a group of counter-protesters, injuring 19 people and killing one woman.

Twenty-year-old James Fields faces charges of second-degree murder.

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