Trump’s next rally in city that saw notorious race massacre on date celebrating end of slavery

President’s campaign planning more rallies, starting with controversial Oklahoma event

Donald Trump supporters will converge on Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week when the US president returns to hosting rallies on the same spot where African-Americans were massacred one hundred years ago.

White mobs spent two days murdering hundreds in what was then a thriving black town, in one of the bloodiest episodes of racist violence in US history.

Authorities and law enforcement backed the mob, who blamed a white woman’s death on a black man, during the two day massacre in May 1921.

The controversial decision to choose Tulsa comes amid nationwide demonstrations against institutionalised racism following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody on 25 May.

In an apparent – although unconfirmed provocation against the Black Lives Matter movement – the US president will arrive in Oklahoma on 19 June, otherwise known as “Juneteenth”, to hold the event.

The date is an annual celebration of the 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery in the United States.

“This is not an accident,” wrote Democrtic strategist Atima Omara on Twitter. “Trump is holding his first rally of the campaign on Juneteenth (when enslaved blacks were emancipated) in Tulsa almost a 100 years after the massacre of its black citizens. Forget dog whistle, this is an air raid siren”.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement on Wednesday that “Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump.”

“The Great American Comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous,” said Mr Parscale. “You’ll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that Sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of”.

The Trump campaign is still considering other campaign event locations and dates amid continued concerns around Covid-19, said Politico.

Thousands of supporters usually attend the rallies that Mr Trump’s campaign believe are critical components of his re-election campaign.

He has not held a campaign rally since March, in which time the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 112,000 American lives: the highest death toll worldwide.

A considerable proportion of those lives were black Americans, who have been the hardest hit since the outbreak started.

Some 61.6 deaths per 100,000 can be attributed to black Americans, according to the APM Research Lab this week, compared to 26.2 deaths per 100,000 among white Americans.

The disparities seen in Covid-19’s impact on black Americans have no doubt provided further fuel to the Black Lives Matter cause.