White House to host Juneteenth concert

1 of 4 | Singer and actress Patina Miller will return to this year’s Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

June 7 (UPI) — President Joe Biden plans to host a Juneteenth concert Monday on the White House’s South Lawn.

The White House in a statement issued Friday said the concert will be a “celebration of community, culture and music” and coincides with Black Music Month, which the Biden-Harris administration will use to highlight Black music’s influence on American culture.

The Juneteenth concert will feature appearances from Raheem DeVaughn, Kirk Franklin, Doug E. Fresh, Anthony Hamilton, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Patina Miller, Brittney Spencer, Trombone Shorty, Charlie Wilson, Roy Wood, Jr. and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band.

Biden in 2021 signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act proclaiming June 19, the official date of the end of slavery, as a federal-level holiday.

At the time, Biden called the signing “one of the greatest honors” of his presidency.

It was on June 19, 1865, when the last remnants of slavery in America ended as federal troops disembarked in Galveston, Texas, and spread the news of 1863’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Texas made Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980, and the first proposal to make it a federal holiday was brought to the Senate in 1996.

Juneteenth is the 12th established federal holiday and the first since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.

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