--- title: Charlottesville: Heather Heyer's Mom Presents at MTV VMAs description: Susan Bro honored her late daughter at the award ceremony. canonical: https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-28T03:01:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:49.404Z og:title: Heather Heyer's Mother Created a Heart-Stopping Moment at the VMAs og:description: Susan Bro honored her late daughter at the award ceremony og:url: https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5a7c79079646bd3/6988db6bcf40a87885c49246/mtv-vmas-2017-93.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MTV-VMAS-2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Heather Heyer's Mother Created a Heart-Stopping Moment at the VMAs twitter:description: Susan Bro honored her late daughter at the award ceremony twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5a7c79079646bd3/6988db6bcf40a87885c49246/mtv-vmas-2017-93.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Heather Heyer's Grieving Mother Created a Heart-Stopping Moment at the VMAs by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 28, 2017 3:01 AM UTC  Susan Bro speaks onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California. Susan Bro speaks onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California.Kevin Winter—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 28, 2017 3:01 AM UTC The mother of Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed while protesting a [white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.](http://time.com/4906331/heather-heyer-mother-susan-bro-donald-trump/) earlier this month, presented an award at the [2017 VMAs](http://time.com/money/4914313/how-to-watch-2017-vmas-online-free/) in a category dedicated to social messages. [Susan Bro](http://time.com/4903201/heather-heyer-memorial-service-charlottesville/) announced that MTV all the nominees in its Best Fight Against the System award, which was created to reflect “the audience’s passion and activism around social justice issues such as environmental justice, immigration, LGBTQ equality, and racial justice,” an MTV spokesperson [told _People_](http://people.com/human-interest/charlottesville-victim-heather-heyer-mom-vmas-interview/). “I want people to know that Heather never marched alone. She was always joined by people from every race and every background in this country,” Bro said. “In that spirit, MTV has decided to honor all 6 nominees for Best Fight Against the System.” Nominees for the award included Logic ft. Damian Lemar Hudson with “Black SpiderMan,” The Hamilton Mixtape’s “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done,” Big Sean’s “Light,” Alessia Cara’s “Scars To Your Beautiful,” Taboo ft. Shailene Woodley with “Stand Up/Stand N Rock #NoDAPL” and John Legend’s “Surfire.” All were recognized for their individual work in celebrating diversity, rebelling against government exploitation, calling out the targeting of immigrants and decrying violence and body shaming. “I want to make her death count,” Bro [told _People_](http://people.com/human-interest/charlottesville-victim-heather-heyer-mom-vmas-interview/) of Heyer ahead of appearing at the VMAs. “We’re not going to waste this. I would never give up my child willingly. If she had to die, at least we’re going to serve a purpose with it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/"},"headline":"Heather Heyer's Grieving Mother Created a Heart-Stopping Moment at the VMAs","datePublished":"2017-08-28T03:01:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:49.404Z","description":"Susan Bro honored her late daughter at the award ceremony","url":"https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","awards","Music","mtv vmas","MTV VMAs 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5a7c79079646bd3/6988db6bcf40a87885c49246/mtv-vmas-2017-93.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5a7c79079646bd3/6988db6bcf40a87885c49246/mtv-vmas-2017-93.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MTV-VMAS-2017","caption":"2017 MTV Video Music Awards - Fixed Show","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4917779/heather-heyers-susan-bro-vmas/","name":"Heather Heyer's Grieving Mother Created a Heart-Stopping Moment at the VMAs"}}]}] ```