White House announces first Juneteenth concert featuring powerful Black Music Month talent line-up

President Biden Signs Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Into Law WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 17: (L-R) Ninety-four-year-old activist and retired educator Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden after he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law in the East Room of the White House on June 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Juneteenth holiday marks the end of slavery in the United States and the Juneteenth National Independence Day will become the 12th legal federal holiday — the first new one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In 1865, when slaves in Texas got word that they were emancipated, some historians recorded that the announcement was followed by a short-lived celebration. This is becasue the proclamation only granted freedom with restrictive stipulations. Known as "Juneteenth" the belated inews of emancipaton was nonetheless good news as a written proclamation that stated Blacks were no longer being legally desginated as slaves was the start of Blacks gaining full-fledged citizenship and rights under the law. It would be over 150 years later, that the mission of Miss Opal Lee of Dallas to have Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday would be realized. Lee raised awarenwss about the history of Juneteenth by walking 2.5 miles to symbolize the ;ength of the delay in slaves being informed of their emancipation.

U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will host a a Juneteenth Concert at the White House on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 for the first time. The dual celebration of Black history and culture will refelect community and featuire a powerful music line up of highly acclaimed talents from Broadway to the Black church. Juneteenth is a young federal holiday, having been formalized just two years ago in 2021.

The announcement from he White House follows:

In 2021, President Biden signed bipartisan legislation establishing Juneteenth as the nation’s newest Federal holiday, so that all Americans can feel the power of this day, learn from our history, celebrate our progress, and recognize and engage in the work that continues.

President Biden has worked to advance racial equity and ensure the promise of America for Black Americans. See fact sheet on the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to advance equity and opportunity for Black Americans and communities across the country here.

This concert celebration will also take place during Black Music Month, where the Biden-Harris Administration will uplift American art forms that sing to the soul of the American experience.

This event is supported by (in alphabetical order): National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Pernod Ricard USA, STARZ #TaketheLead Initiative and The Recording Academy and will feature:

• 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

The news of freedom had been withheld from millions of enslaved Texans for two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The new prclamatin shred by General Grnger prlonged the servitude status of slaves, locking Blacks into a social cast system wherein they continued to be beholdent o Whtie authority.

General Gordan Granger was accompanied to Galveston, TX by 1800 Union soldiers when he informed enslaved Texans that they were free in the evgen there was resistance. Some oral accounts say the announcement of the emancipation was prolonged because word had not reacehd tDeep South. Other sources beleive slaveowners kmew about the Emancipation Proclamation and refused to adhere to it by witholding infromation from their slaves.

FREEDOM ORDINANCE ANNOUNCED BY GENERAL GORDAN GRANGER

“People of Texas are informed that in accordance with the proclamation from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that of an employer and hired labor. The freed men are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect or gather at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."