A man who attended the Charlottesville Unite the Right rallies will lose his city council seat after his past was revealed

Enid, Oklahoma, City Council Commissioner Judd Blevins faced a recall election after it was revealed he attended the Charlottesville Unite the Right rallies.

When a public official in a small Oklahoma city faced a censure vote that condemned his recent ties to White nationalism, he was saved – at least temporarily – by a Black man. Several residents in Enid blasted city council commissioner Judd Blevins at a public meeting last fall for participating in the 2017 “Unite the Right” rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, that saw one counter protester killed and dozens injured. They also highlighted offensive comments he was accused of making online under a pseudonym. Others defended Blevins, saying he had a right to free speech and rejected the censure effort as a political ploy fueled by Enid’s small progressive enclave. But Derwin Norwood, the only Black commissioner on the city council, made an impassioned plea at the end of the meeting, scolding the community for fighting rather than forgiving. Norwood, who sits next to Blevins at the council meetings, then asked him to stand up, told him he loved him and gave him a hug. Half the room erupted into cheers and applause. The other half sat in silence – or clapped politely. “I realized that in forgiving him, I freed myself from becoming what he was or still may be,” Norwood told CNN in an interview last week. “I had to free myself.”