US: Tulsa marks Juneteenth, one day before Trump rally

People are gathering at an outdoor venue in Tulsa, where the Rev. Al Sharpton will lead a Black Lives Matter rally the day before President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in the city.

The rally Friday commemorates Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.  Tulsa is also the site of one of the nation's deadliest incidents of racial violence, when hundreds of African Americans were killed.

Fareedah Shayeb of Tulsa said she was attending in part for her grandmother, a civil rights activist who taught here about the 1921 race massacre.  "She's the reason I know what happened around here," Shayeb said.

Kate Montgomery, who is white, is also attending. She said many people in Tulsa are anxious about tomorrow's rally by President Trump. "I just pray that tomorrow is as safe as possible," she said.

Speaking to reporters, Rev. Al Sharpton linked today's Black Lives Matter movement to the end of slavery. "People kept fighting," he said. "Abolitionists, black and white, just like black and white are marching now, and they stopped slavery."