'It's breaking my heart': How Greenville, N.C. is wrestling with the fallout of Donald Trump's rally
GREENVILLE, N.C. – “Welcome to Greenville,” the Rev. Bob Hudak wrote in an open letter to Donald Trump before the president's visit this month to his North Carolina home. The reverend extolled Greenville as a “growing city with an extraordinarily diverse population of citizens.”
“It’s breaking my heart,” the 71-year-old retired Episcopalian priest said. “Things not only don’t seem to be getting better, but people are more entrenched, and racism is a card that’s being played whether people want to admit it or not.”City leaders were eager to show that the sentiments are not reflective of the community.
Trump ignited another controversy with a tweet Saturday criticizing Baltimore – a majority-black city – as a"disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess"where"no human being would want to live." The comments were part of a tirade against the city's black congressman, Elijah Cummings. At the first stoplight in Greenville, visitors are greeted by a welcome sign that boasts, “We are building an inclusive community.”
On the banks of the Tar River in the Town Common is a new"inclusive playground" where children in wheelchairs can roll into a swing. At the park’s other end, a memorial is being constructed to the former Sycamore Hill Missionary Baptist Church. A plaza area will tell the story of a former tightknit African American community that was moved out of the 20-acre public space through an urban renewal program decades ago over which there are lingering hard feelings.
“I didn’t want to do anything that would offend or further divide people,” said Scully, 38. “I really wanted to do something to celebrate our community, to bring people together.” “I would like to see the standard bearer of the Democratic Party take on the issue of race very, very aggressively,” said Keith Cooper, 53, former president of the Pitt County Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “What we are going to need when President Trump leaves is healing.”
"This is the fight that Trump wants to have. He wants to divide people. He wants it to be about race,” Jackson said. “Democrats have to be careful.” Rufino, the local tea party leader, dismissed the mayor's comments as pandering for the fall election. The Trump supporters in Greenville include Shonda Edwards, 46, an African American, who said she was not bothered by the chants.Edwards, who works at a rehabilitation center while studying for degrees in nursing and business administration, didn’t attend the rally but voted for Trump in 2016 – for “a change” – and expects to vote for him again.
Engulfed in controversy after only a few months on the job, Gerlach has been whipsawed between responding to those who wanted the university to issue a stronger condemnation of the rally and dealing with Trump supporters accusing him of wimping out for not personally welcoming the president to the campus and handing him a purple ECU Pirates shirt.
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