White House hosts second annual Juneteenth concert
The White House South Lawn was teeming with Black professionals, artists and musicians for Washington’s annual Juneteenth concert, marking its second staging this year. Performances from legendary stars including Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Charlie Wilson and Anthony Hamilton masterfully crafted a musical portrayal of enamoration for the trials overcome by a resilient community.
“Black artists like these have put song to our nation’s fight for freedom,” Vice President Kamala Harris told concertgoers in her opening remarks. “Through spirituals, blues, and gospel, through jazz, soul, and hip-hop, artists give voice to the joy and hope, ambition and aspiration, courage and conviction of the people of our nation.”
Moments later, she took the stage next to gospel legend Kirk Franklin twirling and dancing gleefully. Afterwards, Gladys Knight floated on stage in a bright red suit singing melodies including “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Eventually attendees were graced by charting record label phenomenon LaBelle who swayed to songs like “Love, Need and Want You” and “Oh, People,” kicking off her shoes to ignite attendees with her stage presence.
The evening was filled with opportunities for celebrities and lawmakers to let their hair down and take a moment to enjoy dreams fulfilled and achieved. Famed Netflix actor Billy Porter jammed with her while sitting in the front row next to the Vice President and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Congressman Jim Clyburn, Maxine Waters and Symone Sanders also enjoyed the live concert and could be seen cheering, chanting and singing along to hit records of the present and past.
Amidst a bright stage and shining lights, host Roy Wood Jr. of “The Daily Show” fame frequented the stage embarking down the path of history by narrating Black Americans’ journey to success from oppression.
“It’s important to understand how we got from enslavement to the first Black vice president. It is important to understand how we got from enslavement to the first Black supreme court justice,” he said.
Flanking Wood were two screens rolling the names, faces and likeness of the formerly enslaved as he addressed the audience.
“More than 186,000 Black Americans joined the armed forces to fight for their liberation, half of whom were formerly enslaved,” he continued. “They turned the tide of the Civil War from a conflict about preserving the union into something about the ending of slavery.”
Wood reflected on the day many discovered they were freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. A formalized declaration of Black freedom that would fail to be ratified by many states in the South, leading to Black codes and Jim Crow laws.
“Just because we were free didn’t mean everybody was ready to give us our freedom,” Wood said with affirmations from the crowd.
Throughout the evening, Biden affirmed this message by referencing haunting hate crimes and horrific tales of “old ghosts in new garments.” He pledged to continue making a difference by uplifting community activists like Texas native, Opal Lee who’s credited for the idea of making Juneteenth a federal holiday, an aspiration that became a reality in 2021 as Biden signed the bill into legislation.
“The North Star is the idea that we’re all created equal, [in] the image of God, and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. While we’ve never lived up to it, we’ve never fully walked away from it either,” Biden said hopefully. “That’s because of you and the generation before you who led the march from slavery to freedom toward more than a perfect union.”
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