President Joe Biden is set to mark the 100th anniversary of a massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that wiped out a thriving Black community.
President Joe Biden will take part in a remembrance of one of the nation’s darkest — and largely forgotten — moments of racial violence, marking the 100th anniversary of a massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that wiped out a thriving Black community.
Biden’s visit Tuesday, in which he will grieve for the more than 300 Black people killed at the hands of a white mob a century ago, comes amid a national reckoning on racial justice. And it will stand in stark contrast to the last presidential visit to Tulsa, which took place last year.
After suspending his campaign rallies after the onset of the pandemic, President Donald Trump chose Tulsa as the site of his return and picked June 19, the holiday known as Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Upon receiving fierce criticism, Trump postponed the event by a day, though the rally was still marked by protests outside and empty seats inside the downtown arena.