Juneteenth Concert On CNN Aims To “Uplift And Inspire” Viewers In Celebration Of Newest Federal Holiday

deadline.com:

CNN on Sunday will broadcast the first-ever Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom, featuring a Hollywood Bowl concert with a lineup of artists, with an effort to inform and educate viewers on the meaning of the new federal holiday.The network obtained the rights to the event, from Live Nation Urban and Jesse Collins Entertainment, and the lineup includes Chaka Khan, Khalid, Yolanda Adams, Anthony Hamilton, Billy Porter, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Earth, Wind & Fire, Killer Mike, Lucky Daye, Mary Mary, Jhené Aiko, Ne-Yo, Michelle Williams, Mickey Guyton, Robert Glasper and The Roots, among others.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver taped remarks.Johnita P. Due, senior vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for CNN Worldwide, said in an interview this week that event  “is really one of the most meaningful things that I have been involved in” at the network.“The thing that makes it special, of course, is that it was only a year ago that the federal government made Juneteenth a national holiday,” she said. “So how many times in history will we have that opportunity to really shape for the country, and for the world, how a holiday is celebrated, and the meaning of a holiday and the importance of a holiday.”This is the 157th anniversary of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

June 19, 1865 was the date that federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX and informed citizens that slavery had been abolished in the state.

The anniversary was commemorated the following year with prayers and singing, and it endured as an annual tradition.“We really feel that with this event, we are able to not only commemorate the holiday, but we’re able to educate people