As a lone musician played her own tribute to Heather Heyer outside, police stood guard along with three young women armed with pink helmets and baseball bats. Also on hand, in case of trouble, about two dozen religious leaders including the Reverend Elaine Ellis Thomas.
“We wanted to be here to bear witness on the side of love for the family and friends of Heather Heyer who gave her life standing up for justice," Thomas said. "We also heard that there may be some disrupters here, and we wanted to be a countervailing presence to that.”
There was no trouble outside the theater, but inside Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, raised the roof. “They tried to kill my child to shut her up," Bro told 1,200 mourners inside the Paramount Theatre. "Well, guess what! You just magnified her.”
She urged people to act, as her daughter did, to make a difference. “We are going to have our differences. We are going to be angry with each other, but let’s channel that anger not into hate, not into violence, not into fear, but let’s channel that difference, that anger into righteous action.”
Bro said the loss of her daughter could only mean something if people carried on with Heather’s mission of making a positive difference in the world. “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention, and I want you to pay attention. Find what’s wrong. Don’t ignore it, look the other way. You make a point to look at it and say to yourself, ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ And that’s how you’re going to make my child’s death worthwhile. I’d rather have my child, but by golly, if I got to give her up, we’re going to make it count.” The mourners rose to their feet and applauded as Bro finished.
Heyer was a paralegal, and her boss at the Miller Law Firm also spoke. Alfred Wilson said she learned fast, was great with clients and didn’t care about color. She once dumped her boyfriend over her deep belief in racial equality.
"One night Heather and I had worked late, and her friend was sitting out there waiting for her" Wilson remembered. "The next day Heather was a little upset, and I was wondering what was wrong. She said she and her friend got into an argument. He said, ‘You never told me you worked for a black man,’ and she was like, ‘What difference does that make?” She broke up with him! It took a lot of strength for her to do something like that. I mean after all the next day I could have fired her, and then she wouldn’t have a boyfriend or a job."
Wilson fought tears as he recalled all the emails and calls of condolence the firm had received as the news of Heather’s death spread.
Afterward, Governor Terry McAuliffe called for a period of healing. “Let Heather Heyer be an inspiration to all of us to do good, to put your hand out to help one another. We need to put the hatred behind us, the bigotry. We need to come together as Heather’s mother spoke about. People are entitled to their comments, their dissent, but we need to do it in a respectful manner. We need to come together as one under the United States of America,” McAuliffe told reporters outside the gathering.
Senator Tim Kaine expressed confidence in the state to recover and move on. “We’ve experienced hatred, we’ve experienced racism, but we’ve come a long way. We’ve put away the evils and wrongs of the past, and we’re moving ahead, and there are people who want to bring us back to it, but what Heather’s life shows, what this community shows, what Virginia shows is we’re not going back.”
