For one black supporter, Unite the Right Rally a matter of free speech

"Everybody has a right to speech,” Brandon Watson said.

ByKelsey Walsh and Karolina Rivas
August 12, 2018, 6:06 PM

Brandon Watson, clad in all black and wearing an American flag as a cape stood out as he marched and spoke alongside the Unite the Right leaders in Lafayette Park across from the White House on Sunday.

DC Metro Police form a protective phalanx around "Unite the Right" rally participants as they march to the White House, Aug. 12, 2018, in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

However, Watson, who is black, said he felt it was important to stand with the group to support freedom of speech. He walked side-by-side rally organizer Jason Kessler as the group marched from Foggy Bottom to Lafayette Park.

Surrounded by his supporters, reporters, and Fairfax County Police, Jason Kessler walks toward the Vienna/Fairfax GMU Metro Station to travel to the White House for his "Unite the Right" rally, Aug. 12, 2018, in Vienna, Virginia.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"Everybody has a right to speech,” Watson told journalists. "I wouldn’t be here if my man was a white supremacist.”

As he spoke the chants of counter-protesters echoed from across the park as hundreds decried the gathering of various groups, including some white supremacist and white nationalist members.

PHOTO: A counterprotester dressed as Captain America taunts white supremacists, escorted by police, who are making their way from Foggy Bottom Metro station to Lafayette Park for a "Unite the Right" event on Aug. 12, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
A counterprotester dressed as Captain America taunts white supremacists, escorted by police, who are making their way from Foggy Bottom Metro station to Lafayette Park for a "Unite the Right" event on Aug. 12, 2018, in Washington, D.C., commemorating the one-year anniversary of the deadly rally in Charlottesville.
Michael Candelori via ZUMA Wire via Newscom

Kessler, who said he is not a white supremacist, said he agreed with Watson’s sentiment adding, “White people deserve to stand up for their rights like other people are able to do.”

ABC News' Geneva Sands contributed to this report.

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