WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would shift the date of an Oklahoma rally from June 19 th, the date of the “Juneteenth” vacation, to June 20 th out of respect for a day commemorating the end of U.S. slavery.
FILE IMAGE: U.S. President Donald Trump is praised as he participates in a roundtable conversation with members of the faith community, law enforcement and small business at Gateway Church Dallas School in Dallas, Texas, U.S., June 11,2020 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
In the middle of demonstrations against racial injustice, Trump had dealt with criticism for arranging his very first campaign rally in months on a day understood by African Americans as Liberty Day and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city where white mobs massacred African-Americans a century earlier.
” Much Of my African American friends and fans have actually reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Vacation,” Trump tweeted. “I have for that reason chosen to move our rally to Saturday, June 20 th, in order to honor their requests.”
Trump, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, set up the Tulsa rally on June 19 th, the date in 1865 when Texas ended up being the last of the pro-slavery Confederate states required to comply with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War stating all p