In her latest oral history project, former Charlottesville reporter Nora Neus offers a multiperspective look at the January 6 insurrection and its ties to A12.
Five years after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, former Charlottesville reporter and University of Virginia alum Nora Neus has released 24 Hours at the Capitol: An Oral History of the January 6 Insurrection. But the re-election of the president once indicted for inciting the attack seems to have chilled local institutions’ interest in helping Neus promote it.
Independent bookstores and major institutions alike have been hesitant to host events for Neus’ new book. Beyond the author’s personal connection to Charlottesville, 24 Hours at the Capitol highlights parallels between the August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally and the insurrection.
“The most obvious connection is that there were some of the same men in the streets of Charlottesville and on the steps of the Capitol building,” says Neus. “But in a lot of ways, it goes even deeper than that. January 6, the way that it happened, probably wouldn’t have developed exactly as it did without Charlottesville.”
The white nationalist movement has regained momentum after waning in the aftermath of August 12, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Viewpoints once confined to extremist groups have spread into the mainstream political right, contributing to the public planning of both A12 and January 6.
“There’s so many different narratives, even within different people who went to the event,” says Neus of the January 6 attack. “That means that it’s really easy to just make these really big generalized statements where some people would say, ‘Oh, it was mostly peaceful,’ or ‘Oh, I didn’t see any of X, Y and Z.’ But in both Charlottesville and D.C., there were … extremely violent, brutal street battle tactics being used.”
Similarities between A12 and J6 continue to emerge, most recently in the form of historical revisionism championed by President Donald Trump.
On the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack, the White House updated its official account of the insurrection. It describes rioters as “unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples,” and claims many were “mere trespassers or peaceful protesters.” The same page further says that “Democrats … staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election.”
Claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election have been repeatedly and decisively disproven. Trump’s claims of fraud were among the inciting factors on January 6.
“President Trump, of course, called the rioters in Charlottesville ‘very fine people on both sides,’ and he has continued to essentially make that assertion about the January 6 rioters, including pardoning all of them,” says Neus. “There is no accountability, there is no consequence. And the president has learned that he can do what he wants, and we see that in play now in other parts of his policy. We see this week the American strike on Venezuela. That is an illegal attack and a violation of the U.S. Constitution. But so was the attack on January 6, and he got reelected.”
Promoting 24 Hours at the Capitol has been an uphill battle characterized by quiet censorship amid a turbulent political moment. Neus has few written exchanges with UVA about potential events for the book, but she says her personal contacts at the university tell a different story.
“I was told by people who work at the University of Virginia, and who previously had been supporters of my work, that there was not appetite or willingness for the university to host an event with me given the political climate,” says Neus. “I still then went and requested with multiple different departments and schools. In a lot of cases, I didn’t even get a response from people who I have personal relationships with. And I can see with my mail tracker that they opened the email and read it, in some cases multiple times, and intentionally chose not to respond. In other cases I was just told ‘no.’”
Reticence about potential events is not unique to UVA, or to Neus’ book, says publicist Leann Webb. But getting an on-the-record explanation for why usually interested parties aren’t biting is rare.
“It is very murky, but I do believe that there was a real reticence for our normal partners to want to get involved in this book, because there’s so much fear around unfortunately the very real violence that is going on unchecked because of Donald Trump,” says Webb. “It’s a very nuanced book, it’s a wonderfully reported book, and it is the truth—but something that Donald Trump might take issue with.”
“I think it is important that the January 6 story doesn’t become hidden and downplayed over time,” says Neus. “Our current president once, five years ago, incited an insurrection against his own country and tried to dismantle our democracy, and just the sheer fact of that is stunning. We’ve already moved on, and I think it’s important that we don’t move on.”
