June 15th 2023.
On June 13, 2023, the South Lawn at the White House was covered with Black voters as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated the nation's first Juneteenth concert. She proudly declared that she had co-sponsored the bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and was honored to stand alongside President Joe Biden as he signed the legislation into law.
Vice President Harris also proudly recounted the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration for Black Americans. She reported that they had created more than 13 million jobs and achieved record low Black unemployment. Additionally, they had appointed more Black judges to the federal appellate bench than any other administration in history, including the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the land - Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Vice President Harris also noted the investment of almost $7 million into the nation's historically Black colleges and universities, as well as their commitment to fight for student debt relief. She also gave the backstory of the federal holiday - how even after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the Confederacy, hundreds of thousands of Americans in Texas were kept in servitude for two more years until Union troops arrived in Galveston to enforce emancipation.
The Vice President then introduced Opal Lee, the "grandmother of Juneteenth" to the stage. The 96-year-old shared her inspiring words that if people can be taught to hate, they can also be taught to love.
President Joe Biden took the stage and strongly condemned racism, saying that it was still too powerful a force but that Juneteenth as a federal holiday was meant to breathe new life into the very essence of America.
The celebration was made even more special with performances from Jennifer Hudson, Method Man, Audra McDonald, Ledisi, Colman Domingo, and select HBCU marching bands. Vice President Harris and President Biden's powerful words and the artists' performances made the first Juneteenth celebration at the White House one to remember.
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