(AP Photo/Greenwood Cultural Center via Tulsa World)
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., June 11, 2020 (AP) — Black community and political leaders called on President Donald Trump to at least change the Juneteenth date for a rally kicking off his return to public campaigning, saying Thursday that plans for a rally on the day that marks the end of slavery in America come as a “slap in the face.”
From Sen. Kamala Harris of California to Tulsa civic officials, black leaders said it was offensive for Trump to pick that date — June 19 — and that place — Tulsa, an Oklahoma city that in 1921 was the site of a fiery and orchestrated white-on-black killing spree.
“Tulsa is outraged,” said Sherry Gamble Smith, president of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, an organization named after the prosperous black community that white Oklahomans burned down in the 1921 attack.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
And on Wednesday, the same day Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum welcomed news of Trump’s rally pick as evidence of the city’s progress against COVID-19, Bynum apologized for recent remarks about a 2016 Tulsa police killing of an unarmed black man.
Oklahoma’s black Democratic Party state chairwoman also condemned Trump’s rally plan.
