Daily US Times: President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign rally is set to start again from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the date that African Americans celebrate the end of slavery. This will be his first rally for several months.
The rally will take place on 19 June, known as “Juneteenth”.
The Trump campaign said his Republican Party was proud of its role in ending slavery and winning the Civil War.
The US has been facing weeks of anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody in Minneapolis.
In 1921 the city of Tulsa was the site of one of the worst massacres of black people in US history.
Mr Trump’s rallies were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak in March. His rallies is seen as vital for energising his base.
The President faces re-election in November but – according to new polls- is lagging behind his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Correspondents say that while the virus remains a threat and big social gathering is still risky to spark further outbreak, but Mr Trump’s campaign considers that large crowds at the recent protests will make it harder for his opponents to criticise his rallies.
The Republican President alluded to the low rate of coronavirus infections in Oklahoma – at 7,500 cases one of the lowest in the country.
He said: “We’re going to be starting our rallies. The first one… will be in Oklahoma, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Beautiful new venue, brand new and they’re looking forward to it. They’ve done a great job with Covid, as you know, in the state of Oklahoma.”
He said further rallies would take place in Arizona, Florida and Texas. Trump did not mention what safety precautions would be taken and whether social distancing would be applied.
Mr Trump also rejected calls on Wednesday to rename military bases named after Confederate generals.
Why are the date and venue controversial?
While not a federal holiday, it is celebrated widely by African Americans and Juneteenth is an annual commemoration of the end of slavery.
It celebrates the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved African Americans in Texas.
Texas was the last state of the Confederacy – the slaveholding southern states that seceded, triggering the Civil War – to receive the proclamation, on 19 June 1865, months after the end of the war.
Trump re-election campaign aide Katrina Pearson defended the timing of the rally, saying “that the party of [Civil War victor Abraham] Lincoln, Republicans are proud of the history of Juneteenth”. said in a statement, quoted by Bloomberg, “that the party of [Civil War victor Abraham] Lincoln, Republicans are proud of the history of Juneteenth”.
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