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Kessler Banned from UVA, Protesters Want More

Students and faculty rallied Friday after the University of Virginia banned Jason Kessler, a blogger who brought hundreds of white supremacists to Charlottesville last summer.

As the board of visitors met inside the university’s signature building – the Rotunda -- about fifty people outside demanded UVA do more to keep white supremacists off campus.  Student Ibby Hahn said a four-year ban on Jason Kessler was not enough.

“They’re waiting for everyone to graduate and forget about what happened in four years, and then he’ll be back, so we want him banned for life.”

And student Sarah Pape read from a letter she planned to deliver to the board, echoing the university’s own claim that Kessler posed a threat to public safety.

“This man led a torch-lit mob of hundreds of white supremacists and neo-Nazis chanting ‘Jews will not replace us,’ and ‘Blood and soil!’ and attacking students, employees and community members.” 

The issue arose this week when students confronted Kessler at the law school, where he had come to use the library. 

Also weighing in on the issue of banning Kessler and other white nationalists,   Professor Jalane Schmidt, Professor David Green, Nathaniel Coombs and Emily Little.

kessler_voxpop.mp3

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief