NEW DELHI: Native American groups are planning protests for Donald Trump‘s July 3 visit to Mount Rushmore as the US President plans to kick off Independence Day.
The visit is part of Trump’s “comeback” campaign even as the US reels under the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment and, recently, social unrest. The criticism over Trump’s visit to the memorial comes as statues of leaders with ties to slavery have been vandalised in the wake of the George Floyd protests across the US.
What is Mount Rushmore?
Mount Rushmore features the 60-feet high faces of four US Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
The four faces, carved into the mountain with dynamite and drills, are known as the “shrine to democracy.” The presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum for their leadership during four phases of American development: Washington led the birth of the nation; Jefferson sparked its westward expansion; Lincoln preserved the union and emancipated slaves; Roosevelt championed industrial innovation.
The monument was carved into the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941. But the land the memorial lies on, the Black Hills