Trump delivers speech at Opening of Civil Rights Musuem
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. And I do love Mississippi. It’s a great place.
And thank you, Governor Bryant, for that kind introduction and for honoring me with this invitation to be with you today.
I also want to recognize Secretary Ben Carson and his wonderful wife, Candy, for joining us. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Candy. *__*
I especially want to thank you, Justice Reuben Anderson — great man with a great reputation — even outside of the state of Mississippi. I have to tell you that. (Applause.) So, thank you. Thank you very much. And you are an inspiration to us all. Thank you, Judge.
And we’re here today to celebrate the opening of two really extraordinary museums — and I just took a tour — the Mississippi State History Museum and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
To all who helped make these wonderful places possible, we are truly grateful. We thank you. We admire you. It was hard work. It was long hours. It’s a lot of money, and I know the Governor helped with that, and that was a great thing you’ve done. That’s a great legacy, Phil, right there. Just that in itself. But it really is a beautiful, beautiful place. And it’s an honor.
These museums are labors of love — love for Mississippi, love for your nation, love for God-given dignity written into every human soul.
These buildings embody the hope that has lived in the hearts of every American for generations — the hope in a future that is more just and more free.
The Civil Rights Museum records the oppression, cruelty and injustice inflicted on the African-American community, the fight to end slavery, to break down Jim Crow, to end segregation, to gain the right to vote, and to achieve the sacred birthright of equality here. (Applause.) And that’s big stuff. That’s big stuff. Those are very big phrases. Very big words.
Here, we memorialize the brave men and women who struggled to sacrifice, and sacrificed so much so that others might live in freedom.
Among those we honor are the Christian pastors who started the Civil Rights movement in their own churches preaching, like Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. — a man that we have studied and watched, and admired for my entire life — that we’re all made in the image of our Lord.
Students like James Meredith, who were persecuted for standing up for their right to the same education as every other American student. Young people, like the nine brave students who quietly sat. And they sat very stoically, but very proudly, at the Jackson Public Library in 1961. And, by the way, I would add the word “very bravely” — they sat very bravely.
And, finally, martyrs like Sergeant Medgar Wiley Evers — (applause) — whose brother I just met at the plane, and who I liked a lot — I have to — stand up, please. Come on. Stand up. You were so nice. I appreciate it. (Applause.) You were so nice. Thank you very much.
Medgar joined the U.S. Army in 1943, when he was 17 years old. He fought in Normandy in the Second World War. And when he came back home to Mississippi, he kept fighting for the same rights and freedom that he had defended in the war. Mr. Evers became a civil rights leader in his community. He helped fellow African Americans register to vote, organize boycotts, and investigated grave injustices against very innocent people.
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For his courageous leadership in the Civil Rights movement, Mr. Evers was assassinated by a member of the KKK in the driveway of his own home.
We are deeply privileged to be joined today by his incredible widow — somebody that’s loved throughout large sections of our country — beyond this area. So I just want to say hello to Myrlie. Myrlie. Where is Myrlie? (Applause.) How are you, Myrlie? Thank you so much. Highly respected. Thank you. Thank you, Myrlie. And his brother, Charles. Thank you, Charles, again.
For decades, they have carried on Medgars real legacy — and a legacy like few people have and few people can even think of. And I want to thank them for their tremendous service to our nation.
Less than a month before Mr. Everss death, he delivered a historic televised address to the people of Jackson on the issue of civil rights.
In that speech, he said the following: The African American “has been here in America since 1619. This country is his home. He wants to do his part to help make this city, state, and nation a better place for everyone, regardless of color or race.”
Medgar Evers loved his family, his community, and his country. And he knew it was long past time for his nation to fulfill its founding promise: to treat every citizen as an equal child of God. (Applause.)
Four days after he was murdered, Sergeant Evers was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. In Arlington, he lies beside men and women of all races, backgrounds, and walks of life who have served and sacrificed for our country. Their headstones do not mark the color of their skin, but immortalize the courage of their deeds.
Their memories are carved in stone as American heroes. That is what Medgar Evers was. He was a great American hero. That is what the others honored in this museum were: true American heroes.
Today, we strive to be worthy of their sacrifice. We pray for inspiration from their example.
We want our country to be a place where every child, from every background, can grow up free from fear, innocent of hatred, and surrounded by love, opportunity, and hope.
Today, we pay solemn tribute to our heroes of the past and dedicate ourselves to building a future of freedom, equality, justice, and peace.
And I want to congratulate your great Governor, and all of the people in this room who were so inspirational to so many others to get out and get this done. This is an incredible tribute, not only to the state of Mississippi — a state that I love, a state where I’ve had great success — this is a tribute to our nation at the highest level.
This is a great thing you’ve done, and I want to congratulate you, and just say God bless you, and God bless America.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all very much. (Applause.) https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2017/12/watch-live-trump-delivers-speech-opening-civil-rights-musuem/
It was a great speech. And, it infuriates me that some boycotted his appearance there. These people are dividing us and I resent that.
Donald Trump was a birther. Big time. For that reason alone he will always deserve a bad rep on race relations.
And there are so many other reasons.
True as were many more including H. Clinton.
We have to get beyond this.
Like I said, I would like to see the percentage of your comments that avoid the topic. I think it is a world record. Even Trump would say it "is the biggest ever".
Hillary Clinton was not a birther. Frankly Mags, you have an issue with race topics. Look to your own conduct.
EVEN IF that were true, it is completely irrelevant to what Trump did.
If all we are going to do on this site is clown I may go that route too.
Well, please, enlighten me on racial conduct.
If it is racial to call out misdeeds precipitated by people of color as well as people who are white, then, I must be a racist. Is that the way it works?
H. Clinton...."Washington Post" 2015 - birther
H. Clinton... at rally with Obama...from Hawaii - 2016
Donald Trump was a birther long after just about everyone else stopped. He did it to politically appeal to white racists and white supremacists who were looking for a leader.
There is no saving Trump on this matter.
Hillary Clinton and/or members of her 2008 presidential campaign started the "birther" movement questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the U.S.
RATING
FALSE
ORIGIN
On 16 September 2016, after years of being the most visible and outspoken exponent of “birtherism” — the notion that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Barack Obama was born outside the U.S. and thus his presidency is illegitimate and his allegiances suspect — GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stepped up to the podium at a televised campaign event and completely reversed his stance on the matter — but not before trying to lay blame for the long, drawn-out smear campaign on someone else.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” Trump said. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.”
A press release issued by Trump’s campaign staff elaborated on the accusation:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President. This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer. Even the MSNBC show Morning Joe admits that it was Clinton’s henchmen who first raised this issue, not Donald J. Trump.
In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.
The statement is correct when it suggests that the claim that Hillary Clinton invented birtherism isn’t new. It had been made in 2015, for example, on the MSNBC Morning Joe program:
Though it’s true that the specific allegation that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. first reared its head during the 2008 presidential race, rumblings about Obama’s “otherness” had been percolating since long before that. In 2004, a political gadfly named Andy Martin issued a press release calling Barack Obama a “complete fraud” who had “misrepresented his heritage” in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, and “is a Muslim who has concealed his religion.” The theme was pushed further in December 2006 by conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel, who published an article entitled “Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always a Muslim,” which stated that “Obama has a ‘born-again’ affinity for the nation of his Muslim father, Kenya.” In March 2007, Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn proposed attacking Obama on the basis of his “lack of American roots.” And, in December 2007, a Clinton volunteer county coordinator in Iowa was fired for forwarding an e-mail making the by-then familiar claim that Obama is a Muslim.
The idea that Obama was born elsewhere, specifically Kenya, was first floated in April 2008, according to a 22 April 2011 Politico article by Ben Smith and Byron Tau on the origins of birtherism:
That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous e-mail questioning Obama’s citizenship.
“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008.
That Hillary Clinton supporters circulated such an e-mail isn’t in question, but the claim that that’s the moment the birther theory “first emerged” simply isn’t true. The likeliest point of origin we’ve been able to find was a post on conservative message board FreeRepublic.com dated 1 March 2008 (which, according to a report in The Telegraph, was at least a month before Clinton supporters got on the e-mail bandwagon):
I was told today that Obama swore in on a Koran for his Senate seat. I do not believe he did. Can someone clarify this for me? I am under the impression only a Congressman has so far sworn in on a Koran.
Also that Obama’s mother gave birth to him overseas and then immediately flew into Hawaii and registered his birth as having taken place in Hawaii.
Again, any clarifications on this? Defintely disqualifies him for Prez. There must be some trace of an airticket. While small babies are not charged air fare they do have a ticket issued for them.
Long time ago but there may be some residual information somewhere. Good ammo (if available and true) BEST USED AFTER he becomes PREZ (if that occurs) and it’s too late for Dems – except accept the VP.
The same rumor was repeated, with elaborations, four days later on the conservative blog Ruthless Roundup:
Add to the family history shown in this article that Obama’s mother was allegedly visiting Kenya with Obama’s father in the final months of her pregnancy and was not allowed to board a flight in her late term to return home.
She allegedly had Obama in Kenya and quickly boarded a flight to Hawaii. Airlines do not accept late term pregancies but do not refuse passage to a newborn, usually issuing a 10% or free fare ticket for the trip.
Once in Hawaii, his mother registered him as being born in Hawaii.
The conspiracy theory was already fully formed at this point. Clearly, the Clinton supporters accused of spreading it via forwarded e-mails knew “good ammo” when they saw it, but, as the above posts show, they deserve neither credit nor blame for the invention of birtherism.
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Nice try!
That's an idiotic point to make and it does not in any way mitigate Trump's repulsive behavior over the birther nonsense. Do you swim in polluted waters? Just wondering!
Too much fake news on NT. The credibility of this site is under siege.
huh?
John, you constantly derail other people's articles every day of the week when you don't like what they've seeded. It's getting pretty old. This article was about the President's speech, which was just too damn good for you to allow people to carry on a decent conversation about it.
You threw the bait out there and hoped someone would bite, so you could derail the article for the sole purpose of taking attention off the main subject, because you are just plain jealous. I've noticed when you aren't the center of attention, which is the case now, since you don't have any articles anywhere near the front page, you're jealous of those who do and especially if the article or articles are about something you don't want seeded.
You pretty much did 95% of the work in destroying this article. You should be proud of yourself, because you know exactly what you did and why you did it. You constantly cry about how others are bringing this site down, then you turn around and do everything you can to do the same thing when it suits you.
You may have some fooled, but you don't fool me.
He said the right things, which means someone else wrote the speech.
Only in America. A racist buffoon whose family was on the wrong side of the civil rights issue well past 1964 speaks at the opening of the Civil Rights Museum.
Where are you coming from man?
That piece of fucking shit, Trump, has no business being anywhere near the place.
You cry when he shows up, you would have cried if he didn't.
Well, he WOULD be a piece of shit either way, but at least if he stayed away he wouldn't be contaminating the place with his sickening presence.
You dropped this.
So the King of the Birthers is now a civil rights advocate despite his long history of demonizing Muslims and refusing to rent to blacks?
If anything the museum should have an entire wing dedicated to the numerous civil rights violations committed by Trump.