A Trumpish provocation

Trump's visit to Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opening leads NAACP, civil rights leader to skip it

Mississippi's Republican Governor invited The Duce to the opening of the state's Civil Rights Museum, doubtless laughing into his beard.

Trump, doubtless chuckling, accepted.

The feathers flew to the hilarity of the alt.right types before the event.

Types like that same governor, who annually proclaims a Confederate Heritage Month to pair up with Black History Month, and a public holiday for Robert E. Lee's birthday to pair with Martin Luther King's, as reported by MSNBC.

Trump in Pensacola, Florida, yesterday called upon the folks to vote for Roy Moore, and will return to Florida after his public appearance at the museum, today.

The head of the NAACP and two black congressmen, including John Lewis, a leader in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, said they will not be present at Saturday's opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum because President Donald Trump will be there.

NAACP president Derrick Johnson announced in a press release that rather than attend the museum's opening in Jackson, he will unite with local leaders to hold a "separate event" at the Smith Robertson Museum in the capital city to "pay homage to those who have dedicated their lives to the civil rights of Mississippians, without the presence of President Donald Trump."

“We take this stand out of respect for our heroes and ancestors who, often at the cost of their lives, paved the way for the ending of segregation and racial discrimination in Mississippi,” Johnson said in a statement Saturday. 

“We honor that legacy by speaking truth to power and calling out this administration’s divisive policies and its pullback from civil rights enforcement.”

Trump begins his speech saying he just got there from the opening of the Mississippi State History Museum.

He praises both museums as he starts his speech.

By name, he honored Martin Luther King whom he said he has admired all his life.

His speech in praise of the Civil Rights Martyrs could on the whole have been made by Obama, apart from his lapses from dignity and from solemnity into the familiarities of an emcee at a wedding reception, inviting signal guests by name to stand for applause.