On the night of August 11, a group of violent white supremacists held a march on University of Virginia Grounds, in the course of which they attacked University students and faculty members, a University police officer, and other members of the Charlottesville community.  On August 12 this same group and others attacked citizens in downtown Charlottesville, beating peaceful counter-protestors and perpetrating an act of grotesque terrorism that left one member of our community dead and many others injured.  Two State Troopers who were monitoring the protest from the air also perished in a helicopter crash.

The Department of Classics condemns these acts of violence and the hateful ideology that motivated them.  We are sickened by all attempts to palliate or excuse these outrages.  We join all decent people in expressing our grief at the death of Heather Heyer and in celebrating and upholding the values she acted to defend.  We grieve also for the loss of H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates.  Our hearts go out to the firends and family of all three who died on Saturday, and to all those injured by white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and racist terrorism, in Charlottesville and elsewhere.