President Donald Trump’s campaign has been blasted for racism for holding his first campaign rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth.
On Thursday evening, the Republican National Committee announced another major speech would be given on an anniversary of racial injustice in a location with a shocking history.
“It’s official: President Trump will deliver his Aug. 27 convention speech in Jacksonville, Fla., inside an arena that holds 15,000 people, after his demands for an event without social distancing rules led to a rift with Democratic leaders in North Carolina, where the Republican convention was originally planned,” The New York Times reports. “Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, confirmed on Thursday that the speech would take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, a diverse city where the mayor and the governor are both Republican allies of Mr. Trump’s.”
The speech will be given on the anniversary of a shocking day of racial violence in Jacksonsville.
“The event for Mr. Trump in Jacksonville, not in Charlotte, N.C., as planned, coincides with one of the darkest days in the city’s history. The president will address his supporters on the 60th anniversary of ‘Ax Handle Saturday,’ when a white mob organized by the Ku Klux Klan attacked mostly black civil rights protesters sitting at the city’s whites-only lunch counters,” the newspaper reported.
Alan Bliss, the executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society, told the newspaper that the attackers hid ax handles in Hemming Park.
“The city’s white mayor at the time, Haydon Burns, suppressed news about the beatings, Dr. Bliss said, and it was not until 2001 that the day was commemorated with a marker, paid for by the historical society, at the park,” the newspaper reported.
The same park had a statue of a Confederate soldier until it was removed last week.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) mentioned history twice in praising the selection of Jacksonville.
“Jacksonville is a great city that will showcase Florida’s energy, facilities, entrepreneurship and commitment to bring together the delegates of the Republican Party at a historic time in our nation’s history,” DeSantis said.
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