President Donald Trump has paid tribute to Mississippi's role in the civil rights movement at the opening of two new museums in Jackson, the capital.

Some black leaders -- including civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis -- are boycotting Saturday's event, saying Trump has sown racial division instead of racial harmony.

In his remarks to assembled guests, Trump said: "The civil rights museum records the oppression, cruelty and injustice inflicted on the African-American community, the fight to bring down Jim Crow and end segregation, to gain the right to vote and to achieve the sacred birthright of equality."

He said: "And it's big stuff. That's big stuff."

Trump left before the public opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the adjacent Museum of Mississippi History.