The comments drew immediate criticism on social media from critics who accused him of failing to consider the United States’ history with slavery and North Carolina’s history with Jim Crow laws and segregation. Kenansville itself is named after a man whose family owned a slave plantation.

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Trump has been regularly blasted for the way he has spoken about the struggles facing black Americans around the country. Black leaders have accused Trump of stereotyping African Americans. He has compared American inner cities to war zones, has overstated unemployment among blacks, and has often asked several times, “What do you have to lose?”

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“You take a look at the inner cities, you get no education, you get no jobs, you get shot walking down the street. They're worse, I mean honestly, places like Afghanistan are safer than some of our inner cities,” Trump said Tuesday. “And I say to the African American communities and I think it's resonating, because you see what's happening with my poll numbers with African Americans. They're going, like, high."

President Obama on Saturday tore into Trump on that very issue, suggesting that Trump lacked historical awareness. "You may have heard Hillary [Clinton]'s opponent in this election say that there's never been a worse time to be a black person. I mean, he missed that whole civics lesson about slavery or Jim Crow," Obama said during the Congressional Black Caucus gala in Washington.

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Obama urged voters to support Clinton over Trump.