June 11, 2020
HE MEANT IT TO BE A KNEE ON THEIR NECKS:
Black Tulsans call Trump rally plan 'a slap in the face' (ELLEN KNICKMEYER and JONATHAN LEMIRE, 6/11/20, AP)
From Sen. Kamala Harris of California to Tulsa civic officials, black leaders said it was offensive for Trump to pick that day -- 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."This isn't just a wink to white supremacists -- he's throwing them a welcome home party," Harris, a leading contender to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate, tweeted of Trump's rally plans."To choose the date, to come to Tulsa, is totally disrespectful and a slap in the face to even happen," 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.At a minimum, Gamble Smith said, the campaign should "change it to Saturday the 20th, if they're going to have it."Trump announced the rally plan as he met with a handful of African American supporters on Wednesday afternoon. It comes as his harsh law-and-order stance appears to fall increasingly out of sync with a growing concern over police abuse of African Americans after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2020 7:29 PM
