The University of Virginia will give $12,500 to people injured in the violent clash stirred up by the “Unite the Right” rally last month in Charlottesville, Va., Teresa A. Sullivan, UVa’s president, announced on Thursday.
The amount is the present-day equivalent of the $1,000 that was pledged to the university by the Ku Klux Klan in 1921. According to Ms. Sullivan’s announcement, no evidence suggests the Klan actually gave $1,000 to UVa, but a newspaper at the time indicated that the institution’s president, Edwin Alderman, had spoken of the pledge.
Ms. Sullivan, in remarks to the university’s governing board at a meeting on Thursday, said: “We’re going to acknowledge the pledge, and we’re going to do so in a way that would be as disagreeable as possible for any remnants of the KKK who may be watching.”
In the 1921 newspaper, Alderman showed his appreciation to the Klan by signing himself “faithfully yours.” Ms. Sullivan was provided with a copy of the newspaper days before the “Unite the Right” rally.
The violence provoked by the “Unite the Right” rally resulted in the death of one person and injury of 19 others. Ms. Sullivan said the $12,500 had been taken from “private sources” and would be given to the Charlottesville Patient Support Fund, which is managed by the UVA Health Foundation.