After a civil rightsmuseum in North Carolina denied Donald Trump a private tour recently, Trump supporters reportedly responded by threatening the museum.
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, N.C. declined the Trump campaign's request for a special visit in late September. Since then, according to The News & Observer, people have threatened "to come over and burn down the building and to shoot up the building." Others have also directed racial slurs and foul language at the museum's staff.
Trump wasn't denied entry into the museum because of his comments about President Barack Obama or his comments about where Obama was born. He wasn't denied entry because of his support of stop-and-frisk, or what he's said about Black Lives Matter, or what he's said about the black community in general. He wasn't even denied for his connections to former KKK leader David Duke and other neo-Nazis.
According to WFMY News 2, the museum denied entry to Trump simply because his campaign wanted special treatment. The museum's co-founder Earl Jones said, "We have equal treatment for everyone coming to the museum and we welcome everyone to the museum but we are not going to allow the museum to be used for political gain."
Calling the campaign's approach "disrespectful," "aggressive" and "rude," Jones said the Trump campaign wanted the museum to be closed on Trump's behalf for at least five hours. If Hillary Clinton's campaign would have made the same request, Jones said, she would have been denied, too.
But Jones did add, "The approach, the type of disrespect, pretty much a demand and bullying us to use the museum in their manner and their way in their time, it was inappropriate and I think it's probably reflective of the type of insensitivity of civil rights and human rights that's reflective from Trump over the years."
Similarly, the museum's CEO and CFO John Swaine told The News & Observer, "We were not going to grant a request of suspending our operations so he could somehow try to legitimize his ideological positions." Swaine added, "The landmark is very important—it’s not just a political backdrop."
During an interview with The Daily Tarheel, Swaine also called Trump out specifically: "I do believe the Trump campaign is comprehensively opposed to the work we do at this museum. He would never be in support of our beliefs, when we talk about non-violence, equal justice, housing discrimination—those are things we want to educate the world about."
