For years, Huntington Beach has tried to push back against its reputation as a magnet for extremist hate.
Those efforts weren’t helped last year when the city’s downtown and pier became a rallying spot for anti-mask activists and far-right supporters of then-President Trump.
Now, the city is bracing for a White Lives Matter rally Sunday. The event — which arrives after a smattering of Ku Klux Klan fliers were distributed in Huntington Beach and surrounding areas — is sparking new demands that the city take more profound steps to shake its association with right-wing extremism once and for all.
“These groups will continue to come back unless the larger community stands against them,” said Mary Adams Urashima, a Huntington Beach resident and historian. “That has always been the case, historically, wherever the Klan or white supremacy shows up.”
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