Racist Trump Supporters Protest Unveiling Of African-American Monument

‘White Lives Matter’ Group Shows Up At Ceremony For Historic Marker At State Capitol

UPDATE: The Texas Tribune has a livestream:

White supremacists, including supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, protested the unveiling of an African-American history monument at the Texas Capitol in Austin on Saturday. 

In photos posted on Twitter by The Dallas Morning News‘ David McSwane, the protesters can be seen wearing masks and holding signs saying, “White Lives Matter” and “Stop hate crimes laws.” 

The protesters chanted in the background while the monument was unveiled, as shown in this video from the Morning News‘ Lauren McGaughy: 

On Friday, KXAN-TV reported that the “White Lives Matter” group planned its own demonstration at the Capitol two hours after the unveiling of the monument. One of the group’s leaders, Ken Reed, told KXAN the timing of the two events was merely a coincidence. 

“There’s lots of white people that are killed by police as well; there’s whites that are killed by minorities as well and you don’t see it having such national media attention,” Reed said. “Other races are encouraged to promote and be proud of who they are but as soon as a white person says ‘hey, I’m concerned about my peoples self interests, I’m concerned about our place in this country in the future,’ they’re labeled a racist.”

The same White Lives Matter group also recently protested outside the NAACP headquarters in Houston (pictured), and was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

The $3 million monument on the south lawn of the Capitol is the first honoring the contributions of African-Americans to Texas history.