[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 127, 113th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8992--MAY 31, 2013

Proclamation 8992 of May 31, 2013

African-American Music Appreciation Month, 2013
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Since our Nation's founding, people from every walk of life have set out
to capture the American experience not just in poetry or prose, but



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also in the timeless quality of song. When the outcome of a revolution hung
in the balance, drums and fifes filled brave patriots with the strength
to carry on. When slavery kept millions in bondage, spirituals gave
voice to a dream of true and lasting freedom. Through every generation,
music has reflected and renewed our national conversation, bringing us
together and reminding us of the humanity we share.
African Americans have always had a hand in shaping the American sound.
From gospel and Motown to bebop and blues, their story is bound up in
the music they made--songs of hurt and hardship, yearning and hope, and
struggle for a better day. Those feelings speak to something common in
all of us. With passion and creativity, African-American performers have
done more than reinvent the musical styles they helped define; they have
channeled their music into making change and advancing justice, from
radio booths to the stage to our city streets.
That story is still unfolding today. We see it in the young poet putting
his words to a beat; the conservatory student perfecting her technique;
the jazz musician making old melodies new again. During African-American
Music Appreciation Month, let us celebrate these artists and the
generations who inspired them, and let us reflect on our heritage as a
Nation forever enriched by the power of song.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2013 as African-
American Music Appreciation Month. I call upon public officials,
educators, and all the people of the United States to observe this month
with appropriate activities and programs that raise awareness and foster
appreciation of music that is composed, arranged, or performed by
African Americans.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of
May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.
BARACK OBAMA