Local civil rights activists faced controversy while in Washington, D.C. this weekend.

Samuel Harris, a student of St. Francis College in Brooklyn, joined civil rights activist Hawk Newsome on a march from New York City to the nation’s capital.

During their eight-day march, they stopped in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Newark.

Newsome and Black Lives Matter of Greater New York say they wanted to provide a safe place for people to counterprotest the white nationalist movement.

“This year, we went with a message of love,” Newsome says. “We knew that people would be confronting the [Ku Klux] Klan directly, so we held our own march at the Lincoln Memorial.”

Although Newsome identifies himself as president of the Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, an unofficial chapter, other activists have disputed that claim.

During the counterprotest, members of another Black Lives Matter chapter questioned his credibility as a Black Lives Matter official, he says.

On Saturday, Black Lives Matter’s D.C. chapter tweeted, "Hawk Newsome is not a Black Lives Matter official and the group known as BLM Greater NY have never been associated with the Black Lives Matter global network.”

The issue arose after Newsome spoke at a Trump rally, in an effort to denounce racism and promote unity, Newsome says.

This year, counterprotesters vastly outnumbered the white nationalists.

News 12 reached out to Black Lives Matter for an official statement on this story but did not immediately receive a response.