A Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, drew about 50 Klan members and supporters Saturday -- and several hundred counterprotesters, authorities said.
Members of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan -- some wearing Klan robes and carrying Confederate flags -- arrived in midday to protest the city's plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park, one of several steps the city is taking to reduce its number of Confederate monuments.
Some Klansmen had said they would carry loaded firearms -- allowable under Virginia's open-carry law.
They were confronted by shouting counterprotesters as tensions ratcheted up and a large group of law enforcement officers, including members of the state police, set up police lines.
Police escorted the Klansmen through the shouting crowds to reach their designated spot for a demonstration: Justice Park, which until recently had been named after Confederate hero Gen. Stonewall Jackson.