With quotes by Adolf Hitler emblazoned on tee shirts, remnants of Nazi regalia, chants of "Jew will not replace us," and Confederate flags held aloft throughout the crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia, demonstrations by white nationalists against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee coldly conjured the apparition of the Jim Crow-era American South — and then events turned deadly.

A 32-year-old woman lost her life and 26 others suffered injuries, some grievous, when a car allegedly driven by James Alex Fields, 20, sped purposefully into a crowd of protesters at a high rate of speed on Saturday — literally knocking people out of their shoes and sending them airborne — in what vocal critics, alluding to previous attacks in Europe, termed an act of terrorism.

To reiterate, an (alleged) white nationalist targeted and ran over protesters, killing one of them — after Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a sweeping state of emergency, and after, according to the state's ACLU chapter, police were told to stand down and wait for commands to intervene — providing the both the perfect storm and the perfect excuse to clear the permitted protesters and others from the area.

Seething hatred and vitriol from both sides — white nationalists and neo-Nazis affronted by perceived slights of the system, and their strident anti-racist opposition — fomented into a lethal mixture, the result of which veritably cements yet further losses of freedom for all.

The prospect of lost liberties aside, Charlottesville — in mere hours — exposed the nastiest iterations of racism minorities have opined for decades without recourse, rebranded again, but no different in substance, than a legion of hard-right socialist malefactors unworthy of mention, but whose insignia donned the sleeves of attendees, unabashed.