Vice President Kamala Harris joins a Juneteenth celebration and block party in Atlanta on June 18, 2024. | Source: Anadolu / Getty
The Biden Campaign has debuted its latest celebration of Black American culture with a 60-second advertisement centered on Juneteenth, the nation’s most recent federal holiday that the president signed into law a few years ago.
NewsOne is providing an exclusive first look at the ad, which was released Wednesday morning just as Juneteenth festivities were getting underway around the country.
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Entitled “Our Spirit,” the new ad features vibrant imagery of Black life while a narrator honors “those who built this country, those who sacrificed, those who suffered and refused to be defined by pain or silenced by oppression.”
It also highlights a stark difference between the Biden Campaign and Donald Trump by bringing attention to how Black Americans’ “hard-earned rights [are] under attack from those who look to divide the nation.”
Screenshot from “Our Spirit.” | Source: Biden Campaign
Starting on Wednesday, the ad is set to run for a week across battleground states on TV and radio, the latter of which includes stations owned and operated by Radio One, also known as Urban One, NewsOne’s parent company.
It is timed to air during various Juneteenth-related programming, including the MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals being played Thursday night in Birmingham, Alabama, at Rickwood Field – the oldest professional baseball stadium in the U.S. – in a contest that is being billed as “A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.”
The ad stands as a pointed contrast between the actions of Donald Trump purportedly meant to connect with Black voters. Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks seemingly alluded to those overtures that were on display as recently as this past weekend when Trump appeared at a Black church in Detroit that was conspicuously populated by mostly white people who don’t call the Motor City home.
“While Donald Trump spends his time hosting fraudulent Black voter outreach events that turn out majority white audiences, our campaign will continue engaging Black voters with genuine outreach that highlights the various ways President Biden and Vice President Harris have put Black America at the forefront of their administration – including making Juneteenth a federal holiday,” Fulks told NewsOne in an exclusive statement.
As such, Biden and Harris have already been celebrating Juneteenth before the official holiday arrived Wednesday.
Screenshot from “Our Spirit.” | Source: Biden Campaign
Just last week, for instance, the White House hosted its second annual Juneteenth concert and Harris on Wednesday is kicking off a National Day of Action one day after she participated in a Juneteenth celebration in Atlanta.
Fulks said those demonstrative actions build on the Juneteenth legacy that is being upheld by the Biden-Harris administration.
“On Juneteenth we not only celebrate how far we’ve come as a community, but we must also emphasize all that Black America has at stake this election,” Fulks continued. “From millions of new jobs created for Black workers to billions forgiven in student loan debt directly working to close to racial wealth gap – Black voters have the most to lose this election because of the work of President Biden and Vice President Harris on our behalf.”
Watch the new “Our Spirit” ad below.
This latest ad is part of a wider effort to bolster the Biden Campaign’s support among Black voters, the powerful demographic largely credited for securing his election in 2020 – particularly in the states where the new ad is set to run, including Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
What is 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.
Texas was opposed to freeing slaves, prompting a military operation led by Union troops to cause the end of slavery in the Lone Star state.
The cultural impact of Juneteenth is a resounding reminder of the country’s ugly past regarding the enslavement of Black people.
The roots of the holiday started in the coastal Texas city of Galveston, which served as the theater for the Union’s seizure and possession of the state and still remains the central area where Juneteenth celebrations have continued for decades. Similar celebrations subsequently began sprouting throughout the state – and across the country – where celebrants were using the day as an opportunity to reflect on the rich history and contribution of African Americans to the fabric of the country.
Now, it is a federal holiday, the nation’s 12th and the first new one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983.
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