President Trump’s supporters who want tickets for his Tulsa rally next Friday have to agree not to sue Trump’s campaign and other entities if they contract COVID-19.
‘By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,’ the form said.
It goes on to say that by attending the June 19 rally ‘you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President … liable for any illness or injury.’
By obtaining tickets through the form, rally attendees are also not able to sue the Bank of Oklahoma Center, the venue for the rally, ASM Global, which is the venue’s management company and ‘any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers,’ the disclaimer said.
The Trump campaign officially announced the Tulsa, Oklahoma rally this afternoon.
At the rally itself, the Trump campaign has not announced any social distancing plans.
Trump’s Wednesday announcement made waves after the nation has seen two weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man, at the hands of a white police officer.
The date is significant because it’s Juneteenth, which marks the day the last slaves were informed of their freedom via the Emancipation Proclamation.
The city is significant because Tulsa was where one of the worst racial episodes in U.S. history occurred 99 years ago.
On May 31 and June 1, 1921, white residents attacked and killed black residents in the Greenwood district of Tulsa that was referred to at the time as ‘Black Wall Street.’
Stores and homes were looted and burned. White assailants even used airplanes to drop firebombs, some eyewitnesses said.
There’s a continued search for mass graves.
Younger audiences learned this piece of horrific American history last year when it was depicted on the HBO show ‘Watchmen.’
‘This isn’t just a wink to white supremacists – he’s throwing them a welcome home party,’ Sen. Kamala Harris said in reaction to the rally plans, according to the Associated Press. Harris, a California Democrat, is a vice presidential contender.
Sherry Gamble Smith, the president of the Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, named after the neighborhood that was attacked, said, ‘Tulsa is outraged.’
‘To choose the date, to come to Tulsa, is totally disrespectful and a slap in the face to ever happen,’ Gamble Smith told the AP. She suggested at the least the Trump campaign should ‘change it to Saturday the 20th.’
The announcement also shocked some historians.
“It’s almost blasphemous to the people of Tulsa and insulting to the notion of freedom for our people, which is what Juneteenth symbolizes,” said CeLillianne Green, a historian, poet, lawyer and author of the book “A Bridge: The Poetic Primer on African and African American Experiences.”
“I’m speechless. That day is the day those people in Texas found out they were free. The juxtaposition of the massacre of black people and Juneteenth, the delayed notice you are free, is outrageous. Juneteenth symbolized our freedom.”
Juneteenth is one of the oldest official celebrations commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Celebrations of Juneteenth — which combines the word June with Nineteenth — began in 1866, a year after Granger landed on Galveston Island with more than 2,000 Union troops.