Trump changes Tulsa rally date after Juneteenth controversy

WASHINGTON – After days of controversy over Donald Trump’s choice to hold his first rally since the coronavirus lockdowns in Tulsa, Oklahoma – the site of one of the worst massacres of African Americans in the country’s history – on Juneteenth, the president announced he would change the date of the event.

“Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents,” Trump tweeted late Friday.

He announced the rally will now take place Saturday, June 20, rather than June 19, or Emancipation Day, the holiday commemorating the date in 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger traveled to Galveston, Texas, to inform residents that President Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves and that slave owners had to comply with the Emancipation Proclamation.

Trump had stirred controversy for his decision over the first of several big campaign events. It will be his first rally since an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 2. He had said in a Fox News interview that aired earlier Friday that the initial planning of the rally for Juneteenth in Tulsa was not deliberate, and brushed off the criticism.

Trump has never held a rally in Tulsa, and Oklahoma is a state he won by 36 percentage points in the 2016 election.

Critics suggested the Trump campaign was being insensitive by holding a rally on such a significant day in a location where white people attacked Black Americans in 1921.

Trump stood by the decision until abruptly changing course Friday evening.

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking African American in Congress, said he was glad to see the White House alter course after showing “such callous disregard.”