By Yesha Callahan•Steve Helber/AP Images • Monday 3:05pm

The images that flashed before our eyes on television and social media from this weekend’s racist rallies and counterprotests were ones filled with rage, hatred and sadness. The world bore witness to the results of an election filled with hostility and fearmongering, which gave the people who elected a racist demagogue into office the balls to remove their robes and masks.

And unfortunately, all hell broke loose in Charlottesville, Va.

From the death of Heather Heyer to the brutal beating of Deandre Harris and the numerous others injured, it’ll be a long time before the residents of Charlottesville are able to make any sense of what happened. But Corey Long, a lifelong resident, not only witnessed the town going from peaceful to chaotic but was also captured in one of the most iconic photos taken over the three-day period.

The 23-year-old elder care worker says he went to the counterprotests to have his voice heard. He didn’t want to see racism win and destroy the city he was raised in.

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