This is what's really happening in some chapters of Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter protesters targeted a prominent statue of former President Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday night at the university that he founded.

Protesters at the University of Virginia adorned the statue — which was posed with a sign that read "TJ is a racist and rapist" — with a black shroud. Banners crying "Black Lives Matter!" were also draped across bushes and stone partitions at the college's Rotunda.

Protest fast facts

• More than 100 students, residents, and faculty members gathered on the UVA campus for the protest, which was held in response to August's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.
• The protest was held to enforce a list of demands provided to UVA by the Black Student Alliance in August. Some of the demands, which were compiled in a list called "Reclaim Our Grounds," included:

  • The removal of Confederate statues from the UVA grounds
  • The denouncing of white supremacist groups by the university
  • The requirement of student education on the history of white supremacy
  • An increased inclusion of African-American undergraduates admitted to the university

• "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist UVA!" was a common mantra among those attending the protest
• The shroud was eventually removed from Jefferson's statue early Wednesday morning
• Local news authorities reported that there was no visible police presence during the Tuesday night protest

(Content warning: Video contains rough language):

Protestors surround shrouded statue of Thomas Jefferson pic.twitter.com/oEkoM5jGCO

— The Cavalier Daily (@cavalierdaily) September 13, 2017

Some of Black Lives Matter's aims in its own words

• "We are committed to acknowledging, respecting, and celebrating difference(s) and commonalities."
• A desire to create and cultivate a "community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting."
• A commitment to "disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family" by supporting the black community through "villages."
• "We are committed to practicing empathy."
• "We are committed to embodying and practicing justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another."