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SALT LAKE CITY — Betty Sawyer remembers when the Juneteenth celebration in Utah expanded to Ogden more than two decades ago after organizers forgot to reserve a park in Salt Lake City.
At the last minute, Lenoris Bush suggested they celebrate at an open park in Ogden near the Marshall White Community Center which he ran at the time.
"That's how Ogden got squeezed into celebrating Juneteenth," Sawyer said. "And after that, Lenoris said, 'Let's keep doing it in Ogden.' So, for the next 20-plus years ... we did a day in Salt Lake and a day in Ogden.
"And now we see Juneteenth everywhere, all over the place."
That's in part thanks to a law passed by the Utah Legislature last year adding Juneteenth National Freedom Day to the list of state holidays that include Independence Day, Pioneer Day and Christmas.
Sawyer was one of several community leaders who spoke during a celebration of Juneteenth at the Salt Lake County Government Center on Friday. The holiday, which is observed Monday, marks the anniversary of when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to deliver the message that the U.S. was under Union control and all remaining slaves must be freed.
"We celebrate being Americans, we celebrate the richness of our country, the heritage, the wonderful stories of this country, but it's important to us to acknowledge that everyone does not have that same shared history," Sawyer said. "We would like to have had that same shared history, but that just wasn't the case."
For Sawyer, that includes her own personal history as one of 10 Black students who integrated her high school. She said Juneteenth isn't just about remembering and talking, though, it's also about acting and not being afraid to be in uncomfortable situations.
The Rev. Stanley Ellington quoted a famous passage from Ecclesiastes that says: "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens."
"There are so many things that each and every one of us can participate in, but on this day, on this celebration, let us think about a time for peace," he said.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill likened Juneteenth to Independence Day, calling it a "second independence" for those who were "forgotten in our first independence and neglected in the equality that was promised."
"To me, it also shows that while justice may be delayed, it will not, and cannot be denied," he said.
But that doesn't mean justice is free from resistance, he said, and equality is still under attack today.
"While (Juneteenth) is a reminder of emancipation, it also tells us the need to continue the struggle for equality," Gill said. "Freedom, justice, equality, fairness and truth are ideals that you need continuous vigilance, continuous effort, continuous advocacy to achieve this promise."
Jeannetta Williams, president of the NAACP Salt Lake Branch, urged people to remember their history in light of the "cancel culture" of attempts to remove books — especially those deemed by critics to contain "critical race theory" — from library shelves and school curriculums.
"And now we see the Bible being banned," she said, referencing a decision by the Davis School District to remove the King James version from some school libraries after someone challenged its contents.
"If things come up, let's just be able to speak out against them, because if we don't, we'll just see these things that continue to happen," Williams said. "And we encourage you not only on Juneteenth to be active, but throughout the year because ... we need to make sure that we're doing the things that we need to do to make our country a better country."
The celebration ended with a libation, which Nubian Storytellers of Utah Leadership president and storyteller Charlotte Starks described as an African tradition where everyone who is gathered calls out to their ancestors as a way of connecting.
The practice is meant to break down barriers that separate people of different backgrounds, she said.
"We all have ancestors, friends, family members, who have planted seeds in our heads, because we are carrying those seeds out and they are growing."
