Hundreds of University of Alabama students and political figures filled Two Dimes, Tuscaloosa’s newest event venue on the Strip, for a Wednesday evening memorial to conservative political activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated at an event at Utah Valley University last week.
The memorial was led by a handful of conservative social media influencers, including CJ Pearson, Savannah Chrisley, and Amir Odom.
Kieghan Nangle, a UA Alumna and Executive Assistant to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, also spoke to the crowd, as did Tuscaloosa entrepreneur Ric Mayers.
Mayers, who is a co-owner of Two Dimes, opened the evening, saying, “This event is not about red versus blue. This event tonight is about red, white, and blue.”
Asked by Yellowhammer News why it was important to him to open up the venue for a memorial to Kirk, Mayers pointed to Erika Kirk’s first remarks following her husband’s murder.
“When Erika had the courage to get up and talk for fifteen minutes about her husband and what Charlie meant, and, like she said, her cries are going to go through the world like a battle cry, and the world’s going to hear it. That gave us the motivation to come here and put this event on,” Mayers said.
Pearson, who headlined the event, honored Kirk before turning to what the future of the movement he built may look like.
“It’s going to be incumbent upon all of us in this room to continue the fight, to keep going, and if the Left thinks that they have won, well, they have another think coming because we are just, indeed, getting started.”
Following the event, Pearson thanked city and university law enforcement, and Mayers for making the event possible and safe.
Former Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill attended the event.
Asked about recent revelations of UA employees sharing online comments mocking Kirk after his murder, Merrill said he found the comments to be “a disgrace.”
“What it does is it shows where those people’s hearts are, and it shows what kind of people they are,” Merrill told Yellowhammer News.
“Anytime somebody experiences a devastating loss like we’ve seen the Kirk family experience, and so many people who admired Charlie, those people need to be lifted up, and they need to be encouraged.”
Merrill says the family of the assassin also needs encouragement.
“Those people didn’t have anything to do with him taking those bad actions that he took that changed the lives of millions of Americans,” Merrill said.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl, who also attended, said state employees who publicly celebrate Kirk’s death deserve to be fired.
“A lot of the comments have been from professors or teachers, and I find that extremely concerning about the future of education, and I think that this highlights that as an area that we need to look into,” Wahl told Yellowhammer News.
“Rhetoric that encourages violence or celebrates death should be incredibly concerning to everyone involved in the political process.”
“I think the State of Alabama cannot have employees who are endorsing or celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, and every one of them should be fired,” Wahl said.
As the event ended, dozens of attendees took the time to write messages honoring Kirk on a poster bearing his image.
Riley McArdle is a contributor for Yellowhammer News. He is a Senior majoring in Political Science at the University of Alabama and currently serves as Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama. You can follow him on X @rileykmcardle.
