Anti-white supremacy marchers from Charlottesville arrive in Washington

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Marchers calling for an end to white supremacy concluded a 10-day, 118-mile march from Charlottesville, Va., to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The March to Confront White Supremacy left the Virginia city -- the site of recent racial tensions that resulted in the death of a woman -- Aug. 28. The marchers arrived about 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

They carried signs calling for "justice" and reading "love over fear." Some called for the removal of President Donald Trump from office and criticized his reaction to the city's protests in August.

On Aug. 12, 32-year-old Heather Heyer died when a car plowed into a crowd of protesters opposed to white nationalist rallies there. The rally was sparked by a decision to remove a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a local park. Similar disputes have sparked local protests in cities across the South.

"I was there last month when the Nazis and the White Supremacists were marching through my hometown," one of the marchers, Ben Doernberg, told WRC-TV in Washington. "You reach a point where you say, okay, this has to stop."

Though Trump called the KKK and neo-Nazis thugs in response to the violence, his comments that "many sides" were to blame for the incident incited criticism.

"We are marching from Charlottesville to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate our commitment to confronting white supremacy wherever it is found," the website for the march said. "It's clear that we can no longer wait for Donald Trump or any elected official to face reality and lead. We are coming together to reckon with America's long history of white supremacy, so that we can begin to heal the wounds of our nation."

While at the MLK Jr. Memorial, the marchers gave speeches and said prayers in the rain.

The demonstrators set up tents at Farragut Square where some said they plan to camp until Sept. 30, when the March for Racial Justice is scheduled to be held.