A Greensboro, North Carolina civil rights museum received threats of violence after rejecting a visit request from the Trump Campaign last month.
According to WFMY, the Trump campaign wanted to visit the International Civil Rights Center and Museum to reach out to Black voters in the state. The museum features the historic landmark site of the F.W. Woolworth whites-only lunch counter.
WFMY reports that the museum rejected the Trump campaign because it could not accommodate certain requests made by them. At the time, founder Earl Jones was speaking at High Point University the same day Trump scheduled his visit. However, the campaign allegedly would not reschedule.
Campaign surrogates did not want a tour. However, they demanded that the museum be closed down for five hours for a photo op.
“We did not honor the request of the Donald Trump team, because we thought they demonstrated, in their approach was disrespectful,” Jones says. “… We did not grant that request.”
In an Oct. 4 interview with North Carolina’s News & Observer, museum CEO John Swaine told reporters that staff have received threats since the rejection.
Allegedly, staff received racially charged phone calls and social media posts in the last few weeks.
“The callers were threatening to come over and burn down the building and to shoot up the building. They’ve lessened in frequency this week, but they’re still coming in.”
The Trump campaign has not commented on the matter. Swaine told the News & Observer that the museum is a private nonprofit organization and has a First Amendment right to reject whomever it chooses.
“We made it known to Mr. Trump’s campaign that we were not going to grant a request of suspending our operations so he could somehow try to legitimize his ideological positions. The landmark is very important – it’s not just a political backdrop.”
