WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden called on Americans to combat racism and extremism during a summit at the White House on Thursday focused on combating hate-fueled violence.
“White supremacists will not have the last word,” Biden said.
The event, dubbed the United We Stand Summit, gathered experts and survivors and included bipartisan local leaders.
It also sought to honor communities that have been through hate-based attacks, including mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016 and at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket earlier this year, in which 10 Black people were gunned down by an avowed racist.
Biden was introduced by Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed during an August 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Democrat has said that event convinced him to run for president.
“Her murder resonated around the world, but the hate did not begin or end there,” Bro said.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Andrea Shalal; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
