Today is Juneteenth, which became the newest U.S. holiday after passing Congress with near-unanimous consent in June 2021. The holiday celebrates the arrival of federal troops in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, when it was announced that “in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” Betty Sawyer, the Ogden NAACP president and an organizer of Utah’s Juneteenth Freedom & Heritage Festival, now in its 34th year, spoke to the Deseret News about the significance of the festival, its history and her hopes for the future of Utah. Here are some highlights: Is Juneteenth a celebration of freedom? Is it a mourning of slavery? Is it a combination of both? "For us, we look at it as the celebration of freedom, a celebration of family, a celebration of resilience for people of African descent in this country, and a celebration of our hopes for the future. We also take time, in the celebration of those things, to stop and have a reflection on healing and reconciliation." Your coalition’s motto is “Keeping hope alive.” What is your hope for the future of our state? "One of my basic hopes is that we grab this opportunity to be a model for other places on how to do diversity, equity, inclusion and fairness, the right way. ... That’s my dream, that we spend less time denying that there’s an issue. Denying that racism exists, because we know it does. Denying the history of this country, when we know what it is. We’re spending time grappling over stuff that should be nonissues, versus working on the things that we need to work on, and that we can work hard to make things better." |