"When Governor Terry McAuliffe hung up the phone on the afternoon of the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, he was sure Donald Trump would do the right thing as president: condemn the white supremacists who'd descended on the college town and who'd caused McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency that morning. He didn't. Instead Trump declared there was 'hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.' Trump was condemned from many sides himself, even by many Republicans, but the damage was done. He'd excused and thus egged on the terrorists at the moment when he could have stopped them in their tracks. In [this book], McAuliffe looks at the forces and events that led to the tragedy in Charlottesville, including the vicious murder of Heather Heyer and the death of two state troopers in a helicopter accident. He doesn't whitewash Virginia history and discusses a KKK protest over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. He takes a hard real-time, behind-the-scenes look at the actions of everyone on that fateful day, August 12, 2017, including his own, to see what could have been done differently. He lays out the steps taken afterward to prevent future Charlottesvilles -- and what still needs to be done as America in general and Virginia in particular continue to grapple with their history of racism."--Dust jacket.

Foreword / by Congressman John Lewis -- Saturday afternoon, August 12, 2017 -- A Virginian by choice -- Voting rights -- A new president -- The Robert E. Lee statue -- Preparing for trouble -- Friday, August 11 -- Saturday morning, August 12 -- Saturday afternoon, August 12 -- Sunday, August 13 -- Immediate fallout -- Practical lessons learned -- Rallying cry -- Epilogue: A time for action.