The heightened rhetoric mimics language far-right extremists and white supremacists have used for years, and it follows a year of civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd.

And yet for all the current chaos, the United States has experienced moments like this before, says history professor Ronald Pruessen.

Lawmakers in the state of South Carolina are set to consider whether to bring down the Confederate flag after nine people were killed in a shooting at a historic black church last month.