Al Sharpton will be the keynote speaker of a Juneteenth event rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this weekend.
The event, titled “I, too, am America Juneteenth Celebration,” will have Sharpton join the family of Terence Crutcher, who was a black man fatally shot by a police officer in 2016 while standing next to his vehicle. The officer, Betty Jo Shelby, was later acquitted by a jury and now works as a deputy sheriff in a neighboring county where the shooting took place.
Sharpton also recently delivered remarks at the funeral of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last month. Floyd’s death led to worldwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality and heightened the conversation of police reforms across municipalities and on Capitol Hill.
President Trump was originally planning to hold a rally on the same day but pushed it back one day after critics claimed having a rally on Juneteenth was insensitive.
Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 and is a holiday where many black Americans celebrate their freedom from slavery. On the date in 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger issued an order for the Emancipation Proclamation to be read to enslaved African Americans in Texas.
