Listen to Don and Katrina’s Story

“We're unbroken. We stand together shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm, and we're going to do whatever we need to to protect ourselves, to protect our community, to protect our city, whether we get help from law enforcement or not.”

- Don Gathers

Don Gathers 

My name is Don Gathers, Charlottesville resident.

Katrina Turner

My name is Katrina Turner, and this photo represents the anniversary of August 12, 2017.

Don Gathers

Whooo, I remember this day very vividly. This was now Sunday, August the 12th of 2018. And the community certainly was still very much in trauma from the year before. And we were still very much trying to heal and going through whatever processes we needed to, both individually and collectively. 

Katrina Turner

We marched from Washington Park to Water Street so we could be on Fourth street to feel the pain, to feel the love, to feel the strength of the community that day after what we went through, just a year past.

Don Gathers

We wanted to recognize and remember that day, not so much from an anniversary standpoint, but from a point of saying, “You know, we we just can't let this happen again. We have to remain vigilant and mindful.” And the police presence that day was extremely heavy. They wouldn't allow us initially onto the site of the the car attack. Which was problematic. So myself and and some of the other community activist community leaders here who I am so very proud to to know and have worked beside, we we decided to march. And we banded ourselves. We linked arms as we walked Water Street in an effort to say, “This community is united. We're unbroken. We stand together shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm, and we're going to do whatever we need to to protect ourselves, to protect our community, to protect our city, whether we get help from law enforcement or not.” 

Katrina Turner

Well, community. Um…at 49 years old, I became an activist. And that was because my son called the police, but the police arrested him instead. This was in 2016. In 2017, I took it to City Council. When I spoke about my son, the community just came to me and asked me, you know, told me if I needed any help, they were there for me. So then I joined Black Lives Matter and in May of 2017, that's when we found out that the KKK was coming in July, on July 8th. So, we started training and training and training for J8th. After 8th we did the same. We trained and we trained and we trained for August 12th. And it was so many community members that came together, that trained together, that joined together to come and fight for this community against what were what we were about to face. So community, that day, was everything. But now, five years later, I don't have that support of the community. Many things happened within these five years that did not represent our Black people. So right now, me and Miss Parker are really on the street by ourselves. But five years ago, I stood up for this community, for anybody who wanted to come and destroy it. 

Don Gathers

There's still so much that we need to do as a community. And yeah, it's tough remembering and and watching those images. But it's it's something that we can't unsee. That day, that weekend, that entire summer will be stuck with us for the rest of our lives. And in many ways, that's good because we don't ever want to forget, even when we don't want to remember. Because once we we slip, once we don't continue to tell the story, once we don't continue to document and share what happened, the likelihood that it can happen again just grows exponentially. 

Music credit: Anthony Earls / Any Other / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com