Democrats from Virginia’s Black Legislative Caucus have protested against a visit by President Donald Trump because of what they termed his “racist and xenophobic” rhetoric.
They and other Democrats boycotted the visit.
Mr Trump travelled to historic Jamestown to commemorate the 400th anniversary of representative democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
He is accused of stoking racial tension by attacking minority Congress members.
“I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday as he departed the White House for Jamestown.
The visit marks the day in 1619 when Virginia’s first House of Burgesses met in Jamestown – the first English permanent colony in North America.
The group of white, male property owners became the inspiration for American democracy, and state legislatures and congresses across the continent.
“Self-government in Virginia did not just give us a state we love – in a very true sense, it gave us the country we love, the United States of America,” Mr Trump said in his address to Virginia lawmakers and state officials in Jamestown.
He noted that 2019 marks 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. Next month, the city plans to commemorate this anniversary.
“In the face of grave oppression and grave injustice, African Americans have built, strengthened, inspired, uplifted, protected, defended and sustained our nation from its very earliest days,” Mr Trump said.
BBC
