Former Charlottesville Mayor Shares Painful Lessons From Fight Against Hate
In 2017, Mike Signer faced a small-town leader's nightmare: a racist rally that spiraled out of control and ended in bloodshed. Two years later, Signer is on a mission of education — and atonement.
It was late August in Charlottesville, two years ago this month, with temperatures pushing into the high 80s. But what then-Mayor Mike Signer remembers most vividly about those days is the cold.
He'd walk into rooms and instantly feel a chill, an iciness, from townsfolk who'd lost faith in their leadership. Sometimes people cried, sometimes they screamed.
"You had a whole city that basically needed therapy," Signer said.
At the time, less than a month had passed since hundreds of racists descended on Charlottesville for a that came to symbolize the dangers of a reinvigorated white supremacist movement. Signer, as mayor, was the face of the
