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US President Donald Trump has claimed that he made Juneteenth ‘Famous’. He added that nobody had ever heard of it prior to the backlash over his decision to hold his upcoming campaign rally on the same date. He was speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Trump discussed the tensions about his initial decision to hold his first rally in 3-months on 19^th June 2020. He said, “I did something good; I made Juneteenth very famous”. Trump was referring to news coverage of the rally date. He said, “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it”. The newspaper reported that 47-states and the District of Columbia commemorate or observe Juneteenth.

Point to be noted that the 3 remaining states don’t formally recognize the 19^th June as a holiday. North Dakota, South Dakota, and Hawaii have received calls to acknowledge the date. The holiday is also called the ‘Emancipation Day and Freedom Day’. It marks the date in 1865 that news finally reached African Americans in Texas that US President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves living in Confederate states 2 years earlier. Trump’s decision to conduct the rally on the same day as Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma has sparked an outcry from both officials and residents.

The leaders of the African-American community informed the president it was insensitive to coincide with the date of the rally on the day, especially during continued national civil unrest in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. Point to be noted that Tulsa was also previously the site of one of the worst instances of racial violence in US history. So, Trump eventually pushed the rally back a day to 20 June after experiencing continued criticism. The White House has put out statements on Juneteenth during each of Trump’s first 3-years. Trump took to Twitter last weekend to announce the change in date of the rally, he said,” Prominent figures have argued that the date should be given the same level of recognition as Independence Day”.