Inviting Trump to Mississippi's Civil Rights Museum is an insult to the black bodies it honors

[ashtonelijah]

President Trump will be sharing a stage with Myrlie Evers-Williams and Congressman John Lewis in front of a mostly black crowd on Saturday, at the opening of Mississippi's Civil Rights Museum. Gov. Phil Bryant's decision to invite him has angered a lot of people down here. Here's a snippet of this opinion piece by Blake Case:

Saturday’s opening of the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Downtown Jackson has been something many Mississippians have been anticipating for months and years. In many ways, this (at least partly) publicly-funded tribute is the single most significant acknowledgment ever by the state of its dark – oftentimes bloody – past.

So, the people of Mississippi have been anticipating with great intensity the opening of a museum that would, in some ways, serve as a public acknowledgement of our violent, racist past. It is for this reason that the news of President Trump’s presence at the opening ceremony has produced such agony from all corners of the state.

As many of us feared, Mississippi cannot even do this one, simple thing to pay tribute to the black bodies and souls that helped build and shape this complicated place we call home – not without tainting the ceremony by including in it a man who has been sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination, who called Nazis and white supremacists “fine people,” and who frequently incites racial strife.

Picture it. President Trump, a man literally endorsed for the office by the Ku Klux Klan, takes his spot on a dais for the ceremony. Next to him is Myrlie Evers-Williams, the wife of slain NAACP worker, Medgar Evers. In 1963, Klansman Byron De La Beckwith stood outside the Evers’ Jackson home with a rifle. He assassinated Medgar Evers as he returned home from work. His loving wife and his small children witnessed the murder. Beckwith was not convicted for his crime until 1994.

http://deepsouthvoice.com/2017/12/04/trumps-appearance-at-the-mississippi-civil-rights-museum-is-an-insult-to-our-states-heroes/

[CatMor]

1. President Obama is the one who should be there.

[Mollyann]

2. Chocolate Pie

Minnie, from "The Help", needs to bake Trump one of her special chocolate pies.

[left-of-center2012]

3. Audience best be nice

Or angry attack tweets to follow.

[uppityperson]

5. Here's a place to start your own forum

https://m.wikihow.com/Start-a-Forum

[nolabear]

6. Acc. to MS newspapers he hasnt even confirmed hes going.

Even now they don’t know, though the invitation was issued months ago.

Frankly if I was him I’d stay far away from Jackson. It’s a place where there really is tension and he might find himself in the middle of something wholly appropriate and very scary.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

7. Oh my god, who pray tell invited the racist ...he's just

..going to soil the event ...what could possibly go wrong?

[dalton99a]

8. He should talk to an empty room

[Rhiannon12866]

9. "Abominable human being" Mississippi Dems rip Trump over plans to attend Civil Rights Museum opening

The Mississippi Association of County Democratic Chairs and the Hinds County Democratic Party on Tuesday tore into Donald Trump’s planned participation at the opening ceremony for the state’s Civil Rights Museum, call thing the president “an abominable human being.”

“Yesterday, we learned with great dismay that the President will participate in the opening ceremonies of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this Saturday,” the joint statement reads. “As the direct political heirs to the Freedom Democratic Party and in the spirit of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, we call upon all the authorities involved to cancel any appearance and remarks by President Donald Trump immediately.”

“Any reasonable person knows that the presence of such a hugely divisive and polarizing figure will pervert and diminish what could otherwise be a healing and teaching moment for our state,” the statement continues. “Mr. Trump attained to the highest office in the land by appeals and tactics that do great and lasting violence to our civil rights heritage. His campaign appealed to the very worst demons of the American soul. He is a disgraceful president, a malicious influence, and an abominable human being.”

“He has no place at a celebration of the very values and aspirations his presidency is clearly committed to destroy,” it adds. “Mr. President, leave Mississippi alone. We have had far too much experience with your kind already.”

The statement comes as the NAACP Tuesday said Trump is not worthy of attending the event.

More: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/an-abominable-human-being-mississippi-dems-rip-trump-over-plans-to-attend-civil-rights-museums-opening-ceremony/