President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021 – this year, he’s throwing a celebration for the holiday at the White House.
While Juneteenth is celebrated June 19, this celebration will be held June 13 on the South Lawn. It will include a celebration of “community, culture and music,” with a concert, the White House said.
Juneteenth celebrates the day Union troops marched in to Galveston, Texas, to finally enforce freedom for people who had been held there as slaves. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, this march didn’t occur until 1865.
“It could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control,” explained the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later.”
In Texas, those who finally were able to enjoy freedom began celebrating the day the soldiers arrived as Juneteenth.
“On Juneteenth, we recommit ourselves to the work of equity, equality, and justice. And, we celebrate the centuries of struggle, courage, and hope that have brought us to this time of progress and possibility,” said Biden of the holiday.
Biden has also called slavery “America’s original sin,” and, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, has aimed to include measures to advance racial equity in the U.S. during their administration. Information about those efforts is available here.
“We have come far,” said Harris, the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian American to be elected vice president, on Juneteenth 2021. “And we have far to go. But today is a day of celebration. It is not only a day of pride, it is also a day for us to reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to action.”
During the White House Juneteenth concert this year – which the administration noted falls during Black Music Month – the following entertainers are set to perform:
· Audra McDonald
· Broadway Inspirational Voices
· Cliff “Method Man” Smith
· Colman Domingo
· Fisk Jubilee Singers
· Hampton University Concert Choir
· Jennifer Hudson
· Ledisi
· Maverick City Music
· Morgan State University Marching Band – The Magnificent Marching Machine
· Nicco Annan
· Patina Miller
· Step Afrika!
· Tennessee State University Marching Band – Aristocrat of Bands
· “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band
According to the White House, the aim of the concert is to “uplift American art forms that sing to the soul of the American experience.” The National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Pernod Ricard USA, STARZ #TaketheLead Initiative and The Recording Academy are sponsoring the event.
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