Washington - US President Donald Trump
said on Friday he would shift the date of an Oklahoma rally from
June 19th, the date of the "Juneteenth" holiday, to June 20th
out of respect for a day commemorating the end of US slavery.
Amid protests against racial injustice, Trump had faced
criticism for scheduling his first campaign rally in months on a
day known by African Americans as Freedom Day and in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, a city where white mobs massacred African-Americans a
century ago.
“Many of my African American friends and supporters have
reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of
respect for this Holiday,” Trump tweeted. "I have therefore
decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to
honor their requests."
Trump, seeking re-election on November 3, scheduled the Tulsa
rally on June 19th, the date in 1865 when Texas became the last
of the pro-slavery Confederate states forced to comply with
President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation during the
Civil War declaring all people held as slaves free.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="font-size: 12pt;">#MAGARally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for June 19th – a big deal. Unfortunately, however, this would fall on the Juneteenth Holiday. Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
...of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents. I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2020
Tulsa, a city important in African-American history, in 1921
was the site of one of the bloodiest outbreaks of racist
violence in U.S. history in which white mobs attacked black
residents and businesses.
Referring to his rally, Trump told Fox News in an interview
aired earlier on Friday: "Think about it as a celebration."
The Republican president suspended his political rallies in
March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump denied that
scheduling the Tulsa rally on Juneteenth was deliberate.
The rally will take place against a backdrop of protests
around the United States against racism and police brutality
sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in
police custody in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white officer
knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer was fired
and has been charged with second-degree murder.
Fox News interviewer Harris Faulkner, who is black, later
said she was not sure whether Trump was aware of the painful
history of Tulsa for African-Americans because her questions in
the interview, held on Thursday, focused on the Juneteenth date
of the rally.
"This isn't just a wink to white supremacists - he's
throwing them a welcome home party," US Senator Kamala Harris,
a contender to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's
vice presidential pick, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Trump, who this week rejected calls to rename US military
bases named for Confederate military figures, said in the Fox
News interview that what Lincoln had done was "questionable,"
but was cut off before he could elaborate.
"I think I've done more for the black community than any
other president. And let's take a pass on Abraham Lincoln 'cause
he did good, although it's always questionable. You know, in
other words the end result," Trump said without explanation.
Faulkner then spoke over him saying: "But we are free, Mr.
President. He did pretty well."
"We are free. You understand what I mean. I'm going to take
a pass on Abe - Honest Abe as we call him," Trump responded.
Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of stoking
racial divisions.
The president said during the Floyd protests in which
looting occurred in some cities that "when the looting starts,
the shooting starts." Trump told Fox News he was not aware that
this phrase originated with a white segregationist who was Miami
mayor in the 1960s.
On Thursday, the Republican Party scheduled Trump's speech
to formally accept its presidential nomination for August 27 in
Jacksonville, Florida.
That day will mark the 60th anniversary of what is called
"Ax Handle Saturday," when a white mob wielding ax handles began
a riot over black youth attempting to order food from a
whites-only lunch counter in Jacksonville.