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When Longwood University communications studies professor Alec Hosterman began to photograph the first day of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, he thought the photos would be material he could integrate into classroom discussions.
“This was my first real protest where I knew it was going to be not quite peaceful. I knew people were going to be yelling and coming to agitate,” Hosterman says. “I went into it thinking, I’m going to take photographs, and I’m going to be able to use those in my classes.”
Instead, he wound up documenting the violent, far-right extremist event that became international news. His photos were later staged as an exhibit, “There’s Just Us,” at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Five years later, the exhibition returned to the museum in July and continues through Dec. 30.
The series of 10 images documents the confrontations between the extremists and counterprotesters that shook Charlottesville and provokes thoughts about white supremacy and racism. “We, as a museum, stand up against all forms of hatred, all forms of intolerance, antisemitism and racism, and this [exhibit] is another way we can do that,” says Samuel Asher, executive director of the museum.
The Virginia Holocaust Museum asked Hosterman to host the exhibit once more as intolerant and racist groups are becoming more prevalent, Asher says. “People have to know that when the Nazis were allowed to be in power, they brought with them a whole racist ideology, and we can’t allow those things to happen in our country,” Asher says.
The collection documents different perspectives by showing white supremacists and counterprotesters as well as moments of confrontation, community and chaos. Visitors can look into the eyes of Ku Klux Klan members as they give a four-finger salute or see protesters raise their fists as they march across Emancipation Park with signs against white supremacy.
Apart from the 10 digital prints, the exhibit includes Hosterman’s written statement of his experience and a video of supplemental images.
Hosterman and a photographer friend had expected to see around 70 white supremacists with torches marching around the University of Virginia, he says. Instead, there were about 250 people. “They had all their Tiki torches, and you can see it snake back. … That was probably the first point I went, ‘This is not going to be a small little band of people, this is going to be something more,’ ” Hosterman says.
People came from all over to rally against white supremacy. By the end of the event, there were three people dead and about 35 injured. That weekend was life-changing for many, including Hosterman. “Honestly, it has changed the trajectory of both what I research and, more importantly, what I teach,” he says. “I’ve switched to something that I think is more important in terms of making an impact and something that I can do to help combat white supremacy.”
Hosterman says he hopes people acknowledge the impact of the rally and that it can happen anywhere. “I want them to go through the exhibit to see these faces of people who are white supremacists and to understand this isn't a faceless thing that we confront,” he says. “These are people that have an ideology that is something that needs to be combated.”
Hosterman says he is hopeful about the future after seeing important changes such as a decrease in established hate groups between 2017 and 2021 as recorded by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I learned that people are good,” he adds. “That they will fight to help one another even if it means putting their own life on the line.”
“There’s Just Us” continues through Dec. 30 at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.
