Al Sharpton slams Donald Trump at Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, insists the president is 'not qualified' to run the country and says the protesters will 'make America great again'

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Reverend Al Sharpton has delivered a fiery condemnation of Donald Trump in Tulsa on the eve of his rally in the city, telling protesters that they were the ones whose demonstrations would make America great.

The 65-year-old civil rights activist said he had received death threats for being in Oklahoma, but told the crowd they were the ones who would change America for the better. 

Donald Trump will hold his own rally in the city on Saturday - his first campaign gathering since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

Sharpton mocked the president's campaign slogan. 

'That's why I'm puzzled by people who go around saying "Make America Great Again," he said. 

'I want them to give me the date when America was great for everybody.' 

Al Sharpton traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to speak on Juneteenth and preview Trump's rally

The 65-year-old former presidential candidate delivered a fiery rebuke to Donald Trump

Sharpton told the crowd unless Trump comes to Tulsa with policies on combating police brutality, he should not come at all. He mocked the president for organizing it on Juneteenth

He continued, his voice rising to a crescendo: 'We are the ones - the ones that were marching in Selma, the ones that are marching all over - we're the ones that will make America great for everybody, for the first time.

'Greatness is when Blacks and whites and Latinos and Asians and original Americans hit the streets all over this country and march against your tear gas and march against your rubber bullets and march against your military occupation you threaten anyhow.'   

Sharpton said before his rally that he had received death threats. 

At a hastily called press event about 90 minutes before the event, organizers said Sharpton was 'very concerned' about his safety and that there had been some suggestions that Sharpton's appearance, and perhaps the rest of the festival itself, be canceled.

The rally went ahead as planned, however, with Sharpton introduced by Tiffany Crutcher, whose brother Terence Crutcher was killed by Tulsa police in September 2016 while standing unarmed near his car.  

The Rev. Al Sharpton is flanked by the Rev. Robert Turner, left, and Tiffany Crutcher, right, as he makes remarks during a Juneteenth celebration in the Greenwood district of Tulsa

Crowds gathered in Tulsa to hear Sharpton speak, ahead of the president's rally Saturday

'I don't care about threats,' said Sharpton, at one point in his speech. 

Sharpton was speaking at Juneteenth celebrations in the Greenwood district of the city - the site of the 1921 massacre of Tulsa's wealthy black residents at the hands of a white mob. 

Juneteenth commemorates the date slaves in Texas finally received the news about the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Sharpton laughed at Trump for not knowing the significance of the date - Trump had originally intended his rally to be on Juneteenth, but changed it to Saturday amid an outcry. 

'The president said he was coming on June 19th. Didn't know it was Juneteenth,' said Sharpton. 

Trump supporters camped out Friday in Tulsa ahead of the president's rally on Saturday

A Trump supporter waiting for Saturday's rally, which is expected to draw large crowds

Sharpton said Trump, a native New Yorker, grew up in a city where two-thirds of the population was African American or Latino. 

The former presidential candidate said Trump's apparent unawareness of the date was either the result of an 'insensitive and isolated' life or else, he said, 'he's lying.'  

Sharpton said Trump was 'too culturally deficient to address this country as its head of state.'

The Baptist minister also challenged Trump's claims of doing more than any other president to help the African American community, saying that many of the things Trump claimed to have accomplished, such as lowered unemployment, were the result of Barack Obama's policies.

'You just rode the wave,' Sharpton said. 

Trump supporters have been traveling to the city for days, and many camped out on Friday to be the first in line for the 19,000-capacity Bok Arena.

The rally has sparked concerns about the possible spread of coronavirus, but Trump and his team have pushed ahead. 

Sharpton challenged Trump to use his rally Saturday to set out definite policies dealing with racism and police brutality.

'If you come to Tulsa and you can’t say something concrete (about these issues), then don’t say anything at all.'