WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he learned about the importance of Juneteenth from a black Secret Service agent and is taking credit for making the unofficial holiday “very famous.”
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Trump made the comments in a Wall Street Journal interview published Thursday.
The president had planned to hold his first campaign rally since early March in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19. Those plans were changed after the date and location were criticized as insensitive to the country’s history of racist violence.
June 19, known as Juneteenth, is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers brought word of the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved people in Texas.
Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa was moved to Saturday instead.
“I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Trump told the newspaper.
Tulsa was also the site of one of most notorious incidents of racist violence in U.S. history. In 1921, a mob of white residents attacked and killed black community members, destroying a thriving black business district.
Nasser made yom Kippur famous when he attacked Israel.
Huh? I never heard of Juneteenth until yesterday.
I’ve never heard of this day before and I have a degree in history. I only heard it after trump. Americans don’t teach their own history well. And also I didn’t realize it was a holiday to some people
How is this holiday observed? Eating crackers, bitter herbs, telling slavery stories, liberation stories? Just wondering. In all odds, the naming of the day as a holiday is all there is to it. And some will use it as an excuse to party, get drunk, commit violence, and claim the rest of the world owes them everything. Sad.
‘Frum’ Yidden don’t celebrate ANY American holidays. Now Juneteenth bothers them?
Hey man wes gonna have a big party with all the stuff we gonna take from Target and Apple. Ain’t nuttn like a good riot and a bit o serious lootin to celebrate such a spshial day to the BLM people