LOS ANGELES_Dozens of people turned out Saturday for a march and rally in Venice to celebrate diversity and unity following a week of nationwide conflict over racial equality.
The mostly peaceful event was one of many taking place around the country as activists push to spread often dueling messages.
The Venice march on the west side of Los Angeles began at 11 a.m. at the Venice boardwalk and headed to the Google building.
"This is a time where fear cannot keep us inside protecting ourselves," organizers said in a statement. "Our only safety is standing strong against a culture of hate."
Marches and rallies are taking place across the country in the wake of racially charged violence a week ago in Charlottesville, Va. Far-right activists _ including white supremacists _ clashed with counter-demonstrators, resulting in the death of one woman.
Megan Massa, 25, a graduate student at UCLA, was among the more than 200 people who attended the rally in Venice.
"With the events of last week in Charlottesville, my relationship to the social justice movement has changed," she said. Massa said she used to consider herself an ally of the movement, rather than a participant.
"But as a member of an ethnically Jewish community," she said, "I realized it's me as well."
Massa was joined by Janki Kaneria, 24, a University of California, Los Angeles law student. The two women have known each other since they were roommates as freshmen at Bowdoin College in Maine.
Kaneria said she wanted to participate in the rally in part to fight against a sense of helplessness that many people felt after Charlottesville. "It's something active you can do," she said.
Ashley Lukashevsky, 24, a freelance political illustrator, was one of many who said she attended the rally in response to the clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville.
"Charlottesville woke everyone up a little bit more," she said. "(President) Trump is giving credence to all of these ideas and people with intolerance and bigotry in their hearts are really feeling like they can voice their opinions in a really big way."
Lukashevsky held a sign that read: "Talk to your racist relatives." This was not a barb aimed at her family, she said, but rather an admonition to others.
"If you're out here and you're protesting, you need to also have the courage to go back home and talk to people where you're from," she said.
As the marchers made their way along the mile-long route, they chanted a cry taken up elsewhere in the country in recent days, "No Nazis! No KKK! No fascist U.S.A.!"
Tourists enjoying a day at the beach responded with enthusiasm and approval _ leaning out of hotel windows to flash a thumbs-up, or joining in as the march paraded down Venice's iconic boardwalk.
Felix Rodriguez, 27, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, said his father had expressed concerns for his safety after the Charlottesville violence.
"But like I told him, black people and people of color are risking their lives every day just by being who they are," Rodriguez said. "It would be hypocritical of me not to put my life on the line for this perceived threat of the alt-right."
Meanwhile, an anti-racism rally was held in Laguna Beach on Saturday, drawing several hundred people, according to the Associated Press. Some carried signs that said "Black Lives Matter" and "Make America Human Again."
Mayor Toni Iselman told the crowd that "Laguna Beach doesn't tolerate diversity, we embrace diversity."
The demonstration came a day before an anti-immigration rally scheduled in the Orange County city.
Activists are expected to gather Sunday to draw attention to crimes committed by immigrants who are in the country illegally. The group also will protest the cheap labor provided by immigrants, which they say drives down wages for U.S. citizens.
