The New School A Democratic Socialist candidate for Richmond City Council comes knocking.
It was on the streets of Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, that 5th District council candidate Nicholas Da Silva had his political awakening.
"You don't end up at A12 not being politically involved, but that was a clarifying moment," he says, using a colloquial term for the events of that day. As the carnage erupted, it wasn't the Democratic Party supporting the anti-racist protest against the Unite the Right rally, he says, but leftist groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America and the International Workers of the World.
Da Silva recalls marching through the city making sure people were OK, when his group got word that the white supremacists had mostly dispersed. They crested a hill and joined another group of counterprotesters.
"It felt great. We were marching up the street together and then the car just came out of nowhere. I remember the screeching of the tires, the horrible sound of the metal," he collects himself, reliving the trauma. "Then, holy shit, I'm sorry but I saw it, they killed that woman."
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