LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Holly Zoller has been to dozens of rallies over the years, but she says she's never seen anything like the rallies in Charlottesville. At times, she was worried she wouldn't make it out alive.
“I remember thinking it was a gunshot and thinking we were getting shot at,” she said.
A brace on her leg and using a wheelchair to move around.
“I couldn't get up off the ground so I had to be carried out. So, when I was carried out I saw the carnage--the other bodies and stuff like that. I was in shock,” Zoller said.
Zoller and Sean Liter were two of the hundreds of people who went to Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend. Zoller was injured when a car drove through a crowd during the rallies. The same incident killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
“Her memory has sparked an entire conversation about white supremacy that's happening worldwide,” Zoller said.
For decades, Zoller and Liter have fought for social justice in the group Anti-Racist Action, but they say their trip to Charlottesville, Virginia was different than anything they had ever seen.
“All 300 white supremacists surrounded everyone, put torches in peoples' faces, pulled guns, beat people up,” Liter said.
The same white supremacist groups say they plan to protest in Lexington too. Zoller and Liter were there when the Lexington City Council voted unanimously to remove both the confederate statues that currently stand near the Fayette County Courthouse. WHAS11 News was the only Louisville station to cover the vote watched nationally. It got a standing ovation.
The two activists say if the hate groups come to Lexington, they'll be there too, but they still have an uneasy feeling,
“Are you guys nervous?” WHAS11 Reporter Ana Rivera asked.
“Yeah. I mean I don't want more violence and death,” Zoller responded.
When it comes to the statues in Lexington, there's no guarantee those statues will be taken down despite the unanimous vote by the city council. And that's because the two Lexington statues are controlled by the Kentucky Military Heritage Commission. The five-member group has the final say whether they will be removed, regardless what the city council says. In fact, it's a felony to remove those statues without the commission's approval. The council is on board but we will have to wait and see what the commission says about the statues.