Democratic US presidential nominee Joe Biden called out the "underlying racism" in America as he sought to soothe the protest-scarred midwestern city of Kenosha.
The Wisconsin city erupted in chaotic protests last week after a black man, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back by a white policeman.
Mr Biden sat down for a private talk with Mr Blake's father and other relatives, and revealed later that he had spoken for about 15 minutes by telephone with 29-year-old Jacob, who remains in hospital.
"He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him, how whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up," he said of the injured man, who is reported to have been paralysed from the waist down.
Mr Biden and his wife Jill earlier met with several members of Mr Blake's family at Milwaukee's airport, including his father and three siblings.
The meeting was private, and reporters and photographers accompanying Mr Biden were not invited inside.
Describing himself repeatedly as an optimist, the presidential hopeful - speaking through a face mask - told a small gathering at Grace Lutheran Church that the majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement for racial equality.
But he also warned that President Donald Trump has fueled the racial animus which has roiled the nation in recent months.
"Not all his fault," but Mr Trump's heated and racially charged language "legitimises the dark side of human nature," Mr Biden told worshippers while a crowd of mostly-masked supporters gathered outside.
The president's rhetoric has exposed "the underlying racism that is institutionalised in the United States, and still exists, and has existed for 400 years," he added.
"I promise you, win or lose... I'm going to go down fighting the good fight for racial equality," Mr Biden said, adding: "We're not going to go down."
The optics in Wisconsin offered a contrast from two days earlier when his Republican rival brought his law-and-order message to Kenosha, where he survey damage and met law enforcement and business owners.
Mr Trump did not speak with Jacob Blake or his family, and he visited in defiance of pleas by the mayor and state governor, both Democrats, who feared that his presence would stoke tensions.
During his meeting with police, the US president equated the demonstrations demanding racial justice with "domestic terror" by violent mobs.
Mr Biden's trip to Wisconsin, which Mr Trump narrowly flipped from Democrats in his improbable 2016 election victory, is a campaign call that also aims to help an embattled city "move forward" after days of violent and deadly unrest.
"We've got to heal," the 77-year-old said in Delaware yesterday. "And so my purpose in going will be to do just that, to be a positive influence on what's going on."
It was the Democratic nominee's first major trip since June due to months of coronavirus restrictions, marking an intensification of his presidential campaign two months before the US election against President Donald Trump.
The pandemic-induced lockdown has left Mr Biden spending most of his time hunkered in his Wilmington, Delaware home or delivering nearby speeches to reporters, but that slack period appears to be coming to an end.
Mr Trump long ago threw caution to the wind. In recent weeks he has visited Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
With the two candidates now sprinting to Election Day on 3 November, Mr Biden has announced his intention to return to the campaign trail in earnest.
Mr Trump flew to Kenosha on Tuesday, to survey damage caused by the protests and meet with law enforcement and business owners.
He visited in defiance of pleas by the mayor and state governor, both Democrats, who feared that his presence would stoke tensions. He did not meet Mr Blake's family.
Demonstrations in Kenosha began peacefully the night Mr Blake was shot on 23 August, but descended into violence for several nights running.
It culminated 25 August when two people were shot dead. A 17-year-old white Trump supporter has been arrested and charged with murder.
President Trump has refused to condemn the killings or the growing presence of armed vigilantes at protests, and during his visit he equated the demonstrations demanding racial justice with "domestic terror" by violent mobs.
Mr Biden leads Mr Trump in national polling, but the gap is closer in swing states like Wisconsin.
Until now Mr Biden has hesitated to hit the trail, rigorously adhering to local health guidelines and campaigning through webcasts, advertising and television.
"I would like to get out more, but I think a president has the responsibility to set examples," he said, by "not being a potential cauldron for significant outbreaks of Covid."
Mr Trump, in contrast, has maintained a relentless in-person campaign schedule including a trip yesterday to North Carolina.
He appeared to urge North Carolinians to test the integrity of the voting system by casting mail-in ballots and then voting again at a polling station to ensure their vote is counted.
"So send it in early, and then go and vote," Mr Trump said. "And if it's not tabulated, you vote, and the vote is going to count."
Deliberately voting twice is against the law and is a felony in many states, including North Carolina.
