TSU’s Aristocrat of Bands readies for historic Juneteenth celebration at the White House

Tennessee State University will be well represented when the Aristocrat of Bands performs at the White House Juneteenth celebration later today, Tuesday, June 13. The Grammy-award winning band, fondly called AOB, will be a part of an all-star music event as President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden host dignitaries for the first Juneteenth Concert on the White House South Lawn. The festivities will start at 7pm EST.

The band held a final rehearsal, at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, DC, before the big performance. Others set to perform include fellow Grammy winners Jennifer Hudson and the Fisk University Jubilee Singers.

The nation will officially observe Juneteenth on Monday, June 19. President Biden signed the Juneteenth holiday into law in 2021. Hundreds of thousands of Americans celebrate Juneteenth to highlight the end of slavery. Juneteenth is the 12th federal holiday, and the first since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was signed in 1983.

Click here for video from rehearsal.

Celebrating community, culture and music other confirmed appearances will also include the following artists:

Audra McDonald

Broadway Inspirational Voices

Cliff “Method Man” Smith

Colman Domingo

Hampton University Concert Choir

Ledisi

Maverick City Music

Morgan State University Marching Band – The Magnificent Marching Machine

Nicco Annan

Patina Miller

Step Afrika!

“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band The concert is also taking place during Black Music Month.

About Juneteenth

Juneteenth, which has also been referred to as Black Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, not only marks the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas on June 19, 1865, but is also a historic moment in American history and the culmination of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that was written three years prior.