President Donald Trump is set to accept the Republican nomination with a speech at the GOP's relocated convention in Jacksonville on Aug. 27, the Republican National Committee announced Thursday night.
The New York Times reports: 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 attackers hid ax handles in the brush at Hemming Park, said Alan Bliss, the executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society. 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 current mayor, Lenny Curry, a Republican, removed a bronze Confederate soldier statue from the same park this week. It was not clear that the historical resonance of the date for the city, which is about 30 percent African-American, was known to Republican officials before its selection.
More from the Washington Post: A permit had already been approved for the 60th anniversary commemoration of those events when Republican National Committee officials tentatively decided to move their convention festivities from Charlotte to the northern Florida city. This happened because North Carolina public health officials resisted President Trump's demand that they commit to allowing him to speak before a packed indoor arena amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. Under a revised plan, which is still being finalized and has not been announced, Trump would accept his party's nomination for a second term on Aug. 27, according to three sources familiar with the deliberations. One venue under consideration would be the 15,000-person-capacity VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Hemming Park, where local civil rights leaders have planned their commemoration, is a mile away. This is already causing friction in the city of 900,000, which is about 30 percent black.
On Thursday, we told you how Trump will hold his first MAGA rally during the coronavirus pandemic on Juneteenth in Tulsa, the site of a horrific race massacre.
A few reactions from Twitter below.
JICYMI in last 24 hrs Trump:
— Murshed Zaheed (@murshedz) June 12, 2020
❌ announced MAGA rally in Tulsa on #JuneteenthDay
❌ on defense v Elizabeth Warren in Senate 4 defending racist, confederate, loser generals
❌ planning to accept GOP noination on #AxHandleSaturday
So 3 strikes – KKK – for Trump in just 1 day pic.twitter.com/hylEiO6tfd
