Jackson mayor calls for tolerance as Trump visits civil rights museum

The mayor of Jackson, Miss., called on his constituents to “be a model for the rest of the world” on Saturday as President Trump visited the opening of a civil rights museum in the city.

“It is our mission not only to correct our ills, but to write a new narrative, to be a model for the rest of the world,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (D) at a press conference alongside Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

“If we can change right here in the belly of the beast, we can see a change in the world.” @LumumbaForMayor pic.twitter.com/fZbernsMRo

— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) December 9, 2017

Lumumba and Thompson both boycotted the museum’s historic opening over Trump’s appearance. The pair instead appeared at a separate press conference organized with the NAACP.

The mayor said his city could be a role model “because it can be said, so goes Mississippi, so goes the rest of the world, because if we can change right here in the belly of the beast, we can see a change take place across the world.”

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In his prepared Saturday remarks, Trump honored the founders of the civil rights movement and the sacrifices of the men and women who fought for equal rights and desegregation, invoking civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. as someone he admired. 

Trump praised the accomplishments of the movement and the African-American community’s fight to “achieve the sacred birthright of equality.” 

The Jackson mayor previously said that Trump’s visit on Saturday was “ill considered,” arguing that both the president and “the policies he espouses are disrespectful to the legacy and history that is to be portrayed in this museum.”

Civil rights figure Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) ignited controversy this week for his boycott of the ceremony over Trump’s appearance, citing the president’s “hurtful” policies that would be an “insult” to the figures shown in the museum.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said he had urged Trump to attend the ceremony, and accompanied him to the opening Saturday.