‘This is Not a One-Off’: CNN’s Chief Diversity Officer Johnita Due on Network’s Star-Studded Juneteenth Concert

After 41 years on air, CNN can still achieve some firsts. The network is broadcasting a special live event, “Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom,” which the network describes as the “first-of-its-kind concert experience” since Juneteenth “became a federal holiday in the United States.”

Although this special broadcast is new ground for many (like the holiday Juneteenth is to a significant portion of America), the network and entertainers are bringing a lot of history and tradition to the show.

Mediaite spoke with Johnita Due — a senior VP at Warner Bros. Discovery and the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for CNN, Turner Sports, and Bleacher Report — to get an in-depth perspective about the special event and what viewers can expect.

Due, a Black woman, has been with CNN since 2003, starting as an editorial attorney – so she understands the network and cable entertainment better than most. In those 19 years, during which she’s collected a number of accolades, she’s seen what happens at a network that likes to bet on new or unique concepts.

Yet Due has nothing but optimism about this Sunday’s show, which is co-produced by Live Nation Urban and Jesse Collins Entertainment.

“This is not a one-off,” she tells Mediaite. “This is part of who we are.”

Due underscored how meaningful this broadcast is to her, personally and professionally.

“As somebody who’s been here 19 years and has seen the company evolve and innovate, it is exciting for us to be the exclusive broadcaster of an event that is being produced by people with the utmost expertise in their field,” she beamed. “To get an opportunity to produce an event like this around a holiday that only last year was given due recognition after 157 years is really impactful.”

While several businesses – including a number of media outlets – have started recognizing Juneteenth in recent years, and communities in Texas and around the country have recognized it for more than 150 years, this will mark only the second year that the day is a federal holiday.

“How often do we have a new national holiday?” Due pointed out. “This is such an exciting opportunity to really help shape for the country – and the world – how Juneteenth is celebrated and share the importance of it.”

Juneteenth is a holiday recognizing the end of slavery of Black people in America. Although slavery was officially declared illegal in 1865, enslavement continued illegally and many Black people did not gain their freedom (or learn of the outlawing of slavery) for several years after.

Juneteenth specifically marks the anniversary of the United States Army’s issuance of General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, formally proclaiming the freedom of all enslaved people in Texas, the last state in the Confederate States to fall after the Civil War. After years of growing interest in the holiday – especially after the widespread racial justice protests in 2020 – Congress officially declared Juneteenth a national holiday with legislation in 2021 that was signed by President Joe Biden.

Of course, while most of the people tuning in will have some knowledge of Juneteenth, many CNN viewers likely won’t – for some, it’ll even be the first time encountering anything related to Juneteenth. So what can viewers on all levels of awareness expect if they tune in?

“The concert will have a special resonance,” Due shared. “It will move you and it’s going to touch you – in a special way if you’re a Black person, but not just Black people. There is a universal quest for freedom, that’s why this is a global celebration.”

The concert itself is being put together at the Hollywood Bowl by a litany of veteran producers at Jesse Collins Entertainment (whose namesake is known for his BET and HBO-produced shows, in addition to a number of awards ceremonies and a Super Bowl Halftime Show) and Live Nation.

“When we heard the vision from Live Nation Urban around this concert, we knew we wanted to be the exclusive broadcaster,” Due explained. “Their vision was so aligned with what we’ve been trying to do, not just around the special event, but on an ongoing basis to really shine a light on our community. We want to share the perspective of our Black audiences, our many loyal and multicultural audiences – and we want to be responsive to our employees, too.”

A pre-show of the concert will be hosted by CNN’s Don Lemon, the only Black man hosting a prime time news show, and the network’s broadcast will be executive-produced by Emily Atkinson, a Black woman who has been at CNN for more than 25 years and currently brings The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to life every weekday.

There are too many featured performers to name, with The Roots, Mary Mary, and Earth, Wind & Fire among the stand-outs. The Hollywood Bowl touts names like Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Billy Porter, Jemele Hill, Leslie Jones, Robert Glasper, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) as additional guests that will make appearances either live or pre-recorded. Re-Collective Orchestra will also appear, “marking the first time an all-Black symphony orchestra has performed at Hollywood Bowl,” CNN said in their statement announcing the broadcast.

Grammy Award winner Adam Blackstone and The Roots’ Questlove will serve as musical directors for the show. As if all that wasn’t enough, Bel Biv DeVoe and Jill Scott were also just added to the lineup.

Incredibly, tickets are still available for the stacked showcase as of writing, which will start at 4:30 p.m. PST. Assuming you’re not one of the people inside the building on Sunday, Lemon will anchor at the beginning of the broadcast leading into the concert starting at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.

People may be skeptical of CNN’s interest in Black content for Black audiences, but they’re not only interested in the topic for the purposes of TV or a new holiday. The network’s business division is also holding a special in-person conversation, “A Juneteenth Conversation: Advancing Black Leadership,” on the morning of June 16. Correspondent Stephanie Elam will have a one-on-one convo with Rosalind Brewer – one of only two Black woman CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies – in addition to a panel chat with John Hope Bryant, the founder and CEO of Operations Hope, and Barry Givens, the co-founder of Collab Capital. That event is being held at the Negril Restaurant, a Black-owned Caribbean eatery near the network’s headquarters in Atlanta, and streamed online.

Due shared that CNN has previously worked with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to properly contextualize the holiday in their coverage. The network has also interviewed many of those that have helped to earn nationwide recognition of Juneteenth over the years, including multiple features on Opal Lee.

Additionally, CNN has also published a list of more ways for consumers to recognize Juneteenth through its “Impact Your World” initiative, which “gives viewers the opportunity and empowerment to make a difference in their community,” Due explains. The network has also just commissioned a Rolling Stone-backed documentary on Little Richard and a five-part docuseries on Black television executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.

Due highlighted another program airing on CNN the weekend after next: the broadcast debut of the CNN Films-produced documentary Citizen Ashe, which arrived in theaters this past winter and has been distributed via HBO Max since.

“We’ve always realized the importance of developing our people,” Due said, “because a lot of the effort including recruiting representation at all levels, but our mission is really putting as much emphasis on training employees and providing equitable opportunities – both in terms of our on-air effort and behind the scenes.”