- President Donald Trump is restarting his campaign rallies that were put on pause due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
- His first rebooted rally will be on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The New York Times reported.
- Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, is a holiday to celebrate the end of slavery and is commemorated by Black Americans as an independence day.
- In 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre claimed the lives of as many as 300 African Americans, according to The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.
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President Donald Trump is restarting his campaign rallies that were put on pause due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, which in the US has infected nearly 2 million and killed more than 112,000.
President Donald Trump will host his first rebooted rally on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The New York Times reported.
Some have pointed out that Trump's first rally would be held on Juneteenth — a holiday to celebrate the end of slavery that is commemorated by Black Americans as an independence day — in a city where a race massacre took place 99 years ago.
According to CNN, hundreds of African-Americans died during the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Going to the site of a race massacre where a white mob attacked black people on JUNETEENTH https://t.co/FoAzzlqd2y
— Andrea Purse (@drepurse) June 10, 2020
Tensions between white and Black Americans in the city were high due to the success of "Black Wall Street," or the Greenwood District, which had more than 300 Black-owned businesses.
Mechelle Brown, director of programs at the Greenwood Cultural Center told CNN that white people at the time would make comments like: "How dare these Negroes have a grand piano in their house, and I don't have a piano in my house."
White armed mobs stormed Greenwood after an incident where Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white girl, who operated an elevator initially claimed she was assaulted by Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black man who took the elevator.
"This particular day after the elevator doors closed and Sarah Page and Dick Rowland were alone in the elevator a few moments, there was a scream," Brown told CNN.
The account of events varies, as the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum points out. As CNN wrote: "Other historic accounts say Rowland tripped leaving the elevator, grabbed Page's arm, she screamed and an onlooker went to authorities."
Rowland reportedly ran after the incident but was arrested later and charged by local authorities, though Page declined to press charges. Rumors circulated that she was raped.
After an "inflammatory" story in the local paper, the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum said, the confrontations started off between a group of Black and white men, who confronted each other in front of the courthouse where Rowland was being held. After gunshots were fired, the Black men retreated to Greenwood, before a white mob destroyed and looted the district.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 1,2o0 houses and 35 square blocks were destroyed in just one day. By the end of the massacre, "Black Wall Street" was decimated and photos showed Black people dead in the street. The Tulsa Historical Society and Museum explained that "contemporary reports of deaths began at 36. Historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died."
Despite the magnitude of destruction, the massacre was largely ignored and missing from the educational curriculum in the state.
"Oklahoma schools did not talk about it. In fact, newspapers didn't even print any information about the Tulsa Race Riot," US Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma told CNN affiliate KFOR in 2018. "It was completely ignored. It was one of those horrible events that everyone wanted to sweep under the rug and ignore."
June 1, 2020, marked the 99th anniversary of the massacre, as protests for racial justice continued across the country after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, who became unresponsive when a white police officer knelt on his neck. All four officers involved were fired and charged with crimes relating to his death: ex-officer Dereck Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter, three others were charged with aiding and abetting.
Trump's response to the protests has been widely panned and he called for law enforcement to 'dominate' protesters in the street.
Trump has criticized protesters and made insensitive comments about Floyd.
Past rallies have been a hotbed for violent rhetoric, and Trump has a history of racially charged comments.
In the past, he called African nations "shithole countries," and said there were fine people on "both sides" in response to white supremacists gathering in Charlottesville in 2017 that left a counter-protester Heather Heyer dead.
According to The Times, Trump's planned rally comes as polls show his political opponent former Vice President Joe Biden leading by several points.
Trump won Oklahoma, a deep-red state, by 36 points in the 2016 election. The state began lifting its coronavirus lockdown on April 24. However, experts warn that the risk of catching the coronavirus is not over.
Oklahoma had recorded 7,480 cases of the coronavirus and 355 deaths, as of Wednesday, June 10. According to The Times, it's very unlikely that any social distancing measures will be put in place and attendees will most likely not be required to wear masks. However, some campaign officials said they were considering providing hand sanitizer to reduce risk.
"Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump," Brad Parscale, the president's campaign manager, said in a statement earlier in the week, according to the Times. "The Great American Comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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