The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has suggested President Donald Trump should stay away from the opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi because he has “created a racially hostile climate in this nation,” Newsweek informs.
Trump plans to attend the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi, this weekend, a move that has been criticized by the organization.
“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement. He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
A number of other civil rights activists have also suggested they will be boycotting the museum opening, while protests are also planned for the Trump’s visit. Asked to comment on the matter, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that she “thinks that would be honestly very sad.”
“I think this is something that should bring the country together to celebrate the opening of this museum and highlighting the civil rights movement and the progress that we’ve made. I would hope that those individuals would join in that celebration instead of protesting it. However they have every right to protest it,” Sanders said, as quoted by The Hill.
Among the issues cited with Trump’s visit to the museum is his refusal to immediately condemn white supremacists in the wake of a violent demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of a counter-protester last August, as well as his past silence on civil rights issues, Newsweek notes.
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