Fresno millennials organizing anti-white supremacy rally in Tower District

Two young Fresno women are organizing a rally to stand in solidarity against white supremacy.

The rally on Aug. 26 is a counterprotest to rallies they say will promote white supremacy that are reportedly planned for San Francisco on Aug. 26 and another in Berkeley on Aug. 27.

Aleisa Rodriguez, 22, said she felt compelled to organize a rally after seeing the video of the white nationalist “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. A young woman and counterprotester, Heather D. Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 were injured. Two state troopers also died when their helicopter crashed.

“Hate was just being so widely accepted and widespread,” Rodriguez said of the Charlottesville march. She wants the Fresno rally to be seen as “anti-hate – that we are united against hate.”

With any rally there is a concern about violence, but Rodriguez said she does not expect problems on Aug. 26. “We know we have to just give a peaceful front, and we can’t give in to that (violence) to make us as small as they are.”

The rally will be contained to the sidewalks at the corner of Wishon and Olive avenues, Rodriguez said. It is scheduled for 10 a.m.

Simone Cranston-Rhodes, 27, said the Fresno rally will allow people who cannot go to protest the rallies in the Bay Area to make a public stand. “We wanted something in Fresno for people to have their voices heard – that they don’t believe white supremacists should be rallying in California or the United States.”

The Fresno rally will demonstrate solidarity for love and unity and “to stand up against white supremacy here in Fresno,” she said.

The two women said they have experience in organizing rallies on quick notice. They belong to a group of people in their early to mid-20s who started a rally in the Tower District in spring 2016 in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

“We had about 500 people marching in the Tower District to support Bernie Sanders,” Cranston-Rhodes said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Fresno millennials organizing anti-white supremacy rally in Tower District."