US: Hundreds March in Charlottesville in Anniversary of Deadly Rally (+Photos)

The police had a brief, tense confrontation with demonstrators angry over the heavy security presence there this weekend.

Shortly before a planned evening rally to mark the anniversary of a campus confrontation between torch-carrying white nationalists and counter-protesters, activists unfurled a banner that said, "Last year they came w/ torches. This year they come w/ badges."

A group of more than 200 protesters - students, residents and others - then marched to another part of the University of Virginia's campus, where many in the crowd shouted at officers in riot gear forming a line, Chicago Tribune reported.

Kibiriti Majuto, a coordinator for UVA Students United, said the students moved to another part of campus because they didn't want to be "caged" in the area where the rally had been planned.

On Aug. 12 last year, hundreds of white nationalists — including neo-Nazis, skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members — descended on Charlottesville in part to protest the city's decision decided to remove a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park.

Violent fighting broke out between attendees and counter-protesters that day. Authorities eventually forced the crowd to disperse, but a car later barreled into a crowd of peaceful counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The day's death toll rose to three when a state police helicopter that had been monitoring the event and assisting with the governor's motorcade crashed, killing two troopers.