Mother of Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer calls for ‘righteous action’ in her honour

The mother of the young woman mowed down by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville urged mourners at a memorial service Wednesday to “make my daughter’s death worthwhile” by confronting injustice the way she did.

“They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what? You just magnified her,” said Susan Bro, receiving a standing ovation from the hundreds who packed a downtown theatre to remember 32-year-old Heather Heyer, killed in what US officials have branded an act of domestic terrorism.

Heyer’s death Saturday — and US President Donald Trump’s insistence that “both sides” bear responsibility for the violence — continued to reverberate across the country, triggering fury among many Americans and soul-searching about the state of race relations in the US. The uproar has accelerated efforts in many cities to remove symbols of the Confederacy.

Heyer was eulogised as a woman with a powerful sense of fairness. The mourners, many of them wearing purple, her favourite colour, applauded as her mother urged them to channel their anger not into violence but into “righteous action.”

State troopers were stationed on the surrounding streets, but the white nationalists who had vowed to show up were nowhere to be seen among the residents, clergy and tourists outside the Paramount Theatre, just blocks from where Heyer died.