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Democrats in Virginia's black legislative caucus have protested President Donald Trump's visit because of what they called "racist and xenophobic" rhetoric.
They and other Democrats boycotted the visit.
Mr. Trump traveled to the historic Jamestown to commemorate the 400th anniversary of representative democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
He is accused of stirring up racial tensions by attacking minority members of Congress.
"I'm the least racist person in the world," Trump said Tuesday as he left the White House for Jamestown.
What is the famous event?
The visit marks the day in 1619 when Virginia's first bourgeois chamber meets in Jamestown – the first permanent English settlement in North America.
The group of white male owners has become the inspiration of American democracy and legislatures and state congresses across the continent.
"The autonomy in Virginia has not just given us a state we love, but also the country we love, the United States of America," Trump said in his speech to lawmakers and government officials. State of Virginia 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.
"Faced with severe oppression and injustice, African Americans have built, strengthened, inspired, built, protected, defended and supported our nation from its earliest days," said Trump.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Washington's largest Democrat, heads a delegation of legislators in Ghana, a country in West Africa, where they will visit castles where slaves were kept before being sent to slavery to the New World.
On Wednesday, she must address Ghanaian lawmakers.
What did the lawmakers of Virginia say?
The last-minute announcement by the White House that Mr. Trump would visit the city has led to a boycott by Democratic lawmakers and the state's black legislative caucus.
"We will not attend any part of the commemorative session at which Donald Trump will be present," Virginia House's Democratic Party said on Twitter. "The current president does not represent the values we would like to celebrate at the 400th anniversary of the oldest democratic body in the Western world".
The black caucus of the state said that Mr. Trump's participation was "antithetical to the principles" defended by the group.
The members intend to hold a rival event in Richmond on Tuesday.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney resigned from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation commemorative steering committee – which sent the invitation to Trump – stating that the Republican president "denigrates our democracy" and should not not be welcomed.
Why was Trump labeled racist?
Trump has long been accused of stirring up racial tensions, going back decades before becoming a political figure.
Last month, Trump accused four congressional women democrats of hating America and advised them to "return" to "the totally devastated and infested places of the crimes from which they came".
Last week, he attacked Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings – who is black – by saying that the Baltimore district he represents is a "rodent-infested clutter".
On Tuesday, Trump called his accusers "racist" and said his strategy of attacking minority legislators was helping him politically.
"I think I'm using myself," said Trump. "These people live in hell in Baltimore."
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