GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Protesters heckled white supremacist leader Richard Spencer as he spoke at the University of Florida.
Booing and chants greeted the alt-right leader as he took the stage Oct. 19 at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the Gainesville campus.
The chants, though disruptive, did not stop Spencer from delivering his address.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the venue to heckle Spencer’s supporters, and someone punched a man wearing a shirt with swastikas.
Spencer spoke at the university with the largest Jewish student population in the country.
Some 9,400 Jewish students attend the university, which has an enrollment of 52,000.
The event gained wide media coverage as Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in the county ahead of the event.
Some had feared the event would erupt into violence, as what happened in August when Spencer led a group of neo-Nazis and white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville, Va.
The university allowed Spencer to speak after initially declining his request.
Spencer, the founder of a white supremacist think tank, has advocated a white ethno-state that would exclude non-whites and Jews.
The university paid over $500,000 in security for the event. In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot charge a speaker for security costs due to potential protesters.
