VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) – About 100 white supremacists rallied at Valley Forge National Historical Park yesterday as nearly twice as many opponents heckled them from a nearby hillside.
Both groups were outnumbered by law enforcement officers. National Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan said no arrests were made at the rally site, but one person was arrested after a scuffle in a parking lot.
Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members shouted slogans from a stage at the park, where about 11,000 Revolutionary War soldiers commanded by George Washington camped from December 1777 to June 1778.
The Minnesota-based National Socialist Movement, or NSM, which sponsored the rally, claims Washington held separatist and anti-Semitic views.
The event was held on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Organizers have said they were unaware of the holiday when they planned the event.
Still, Jeff Schoep, commander of the NSM, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned “the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing.”
Counter-demonstrators in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away shouted “Bull!” and waved placards with slogans such as, “Get out of our melting pot.”
Noah Osner, 25, said he joined the counterprotest to show there are people willing to stand up against racism.