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Trump Visit to Greenwood Ahead of Campaign Rally May Be Off

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1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission

Gov. Kevin Stitt said on Wednesday President Donald Trump’s potential visit to the Greenwood District ahead of his campaign rally this weekend is "in flux."

"I don’t know if the president is going to go to the Greenwood District now. It was a request that I made early but because of the Juneteenth celebration, with the Secret Service it could be problematic to have the president go there because some things have to be disrupted and shut down for a presidential visit," Stitt said.

Several Black community leaders and elected officials have panned a Trump visit to Greenwood, a thriving community dubbed Black Wall Street before it was destroyed by white Tulsans. They have described it as "provocative," a "distraction" and "unwelcome."

There may still be some kind of visit by an administration official.

"We believe — Sen. Lankford and I believe — that Vice President Pence, we’re going to have a great sit-down with some leaders in the African American community to kind of listen and learn and talk," Stitt said.

The president’s original plan to hold his first campaign rally since March on June 19 was also met with pushback, because it’s Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S.

Trump moved the rally to Saturday.

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Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.