WASHINGTON — The NAACP’s leader said Tuesday there would be more racial violence because the Trump administration has “created an atmosphere” that emboldens white supremacists and other hate groups.

“There will be many Charlottesvilles,” Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s interim president and CEO, said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

Johnson was referring to the white supremacist rally in Virginia earlier this month, where neo-Nazis and other groups protested the possible removal of a Confederate statue. One woman was killed, allegedly by an Ohio man who drove his car into the crowd of counter-protestors.

“We are in trying times,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately this administration has created a climate where … (hate groups) feel comfortable to walk in public without the hoods anymore.”

Johnson said he fully supports efforts to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces around the country.

“We believe people have the right to have monuments, but it should not be financed by public dollars on public display,” he said. “It’s OK to relocate them in a museum or a cemetery. I prefer cemetery.”

Johnson also said the NAACP’s controversial “travel advisory,” warning African Americans to exercise “extreme caution” when in Missouri, remains in effect.

“Still on,” Johnson told USA TODAY before his speech. He said the advisory puts African Americans on notice that the climate is Missouri is "somewhat hostile."

The advisory was initially set to expire on Aug. 28. But Johnson said Tuesday that the policies that prompted the NAACP to issue its unprecedented warning haven’t changed, so there is no reason for the NAACP to revisit the matter right now.

The civil rights group issued that warning after state legislators in Missouri passed a new law making it more difficult to win employment or housing discrimination lawsuits.

The law, which went into effect on Monday, requires plaintiffs prove their race, gender, age or ability was “the motivating factor” in the discrimination. Previously, individuals had to show that factor contributed to the discrimination.

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“We’re not telling people not to go,” Johnson said, but rather sending a message that “you travel at heightened risk.”

The NAACP first issued the advisory at the urging of the state NAACP chapter. Johnson said Missouri’s new discrimination law is not the NAACP’s only concern about the state. He said police treatment of African Americans is also at play.

Although it’s been three years since a white police officer in Ferguson shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American, that incident and the subsequent police response to civil unrest remain a flashpoint for many black Americans.

“I don’t think you can dis-aggregate” what happened in Ferguson from the new state policy, Johnson said.

Some business leaders have complained the travel advisory is hurting the state’s economy.

Johnson said the main goal was to heighten awareness about the new law, but he agreed it may have prompted some groups to reconsider holding conventions or other gatherings in the state.

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Contributing: The Associated Press