Rally set for Monday, July 3 in response to white supremacists marching on Nassau Street

Residents of Princeton have planned a rally called the Pop Up Love Fest in response to a group of white supremacists marching along Nassau Street over the weekend.

The Love Fest rally is set for 10 a.m. on Monday, July 3, on Palmer Square. Organizers are urging attendees to bring posters bearing messages of compassion, love, and justice.

Residents organizing the event say the goal of the Pop Up Love Fest is to make a public commitment to lift up neighbors in the face of racism. The coalition of residents is committed to pushing back against hate whenever it shows up.

On Saturday, July 1, members of the white supremacist groups Garden State Nationalists, Embrace Struggle Active Club, and the New Jersey European Heritage Association marched along Nassau Street. The group sees American society as “decadent,” believes the elite have taken over political power, and says white Europeans in America are racing toward extinction. The group claims that reducing whites to a minority will make the nation fail and become plagued with violence, poverty corruption, and instability. Members of the white supremacist group believe they must secure the existence of white people.

Residents and others tried to disrupt the Saturday march and heckled the white supremacists. The marchers tried to pass out fliers to passersby, who either refused to take them or crumpled them up and threw them on the ground. Two clergy members from Trinity Church in Princeton were called degenerates by the white nationalists.

The New Jersey European Heritage Association has distributed propaganda in Princeton in the form of stickers and fliers for several years now. The group planned an “It’s OK to be white” march in Princeton in February of 2019 but never showed up after the backlash. Residents held a counterprotest to stand against racism and bigotry, and hundreds took part.