Salt Lake County commemorates Juneteenth with speeches, song and proclamation

Betty Sawyer, Utah Juneteenth Freedom and Heritage Festival and Holiday Committee director, speaks during the Utah Juneteenth Freedom and Heritage Festival and Holiday Commemorative Flag Raising Event outside of the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 19, 2020. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — About 100 people gathered outside the Salt Lake County Government Center Friday in a commemoration and celebration of Juneteenth that culminated with a flag raising and song.

Juneteenth is a mashup of June and 19th, and it celebrates the official end of slavery in the United States. It’s a day most African Americans have celebrated for decades, but many in the general public don’t understand or celebrate the day on which Union Army General Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, letting some of the last enslaved Americans know that they were free.

That occurred on June 19, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation had officially outlawed slavery in the U.S. and its territories nearly 2 1/2 years earlier.

In 2016, Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill declaring Juneteenth an observance holiday, which means it isn’t a legal holiday, but it is recognized on the third Saturday of June as Juneteenth Freedom Day.

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson read a proclamation Friday and a number of speakers, including Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, and chairwoman of the Juneteenth celebration, Betty Sawyer, shared thoughts on why this Juneteenth feels even more significant than usual.

Sawyer said that when they chose this year’s theme, “United in Hope,” they had no idea that a pandemic and political unrest would grip the world as they commemorated a moment so significant to the country.

“We’ve been dealing with so much,” she said. “It has been one thing after another — COVID, and then we all watched a man actually be murdered before our eyes, and so we’re saying, ‘Wait a minute, this is not the America we love. This is not the America we’re supposed to be.’”

Sawyer, who has led Utah’s efforts to commemorate the date, which became a Utah observance holiday in 2016, said she’s watched the celebration of Juneteenth grow every year.

“I think one of the things that we’ve seen over the years is that additional people show up. It’s not just the black community,” she said. “It’s not just families that have adopted black children. ... It’s raising (awareness) and moving across our whole community. ... And like someone said, ‘It’s not a black issue. It’s a human issue.’ So we’re seeing right now all over the world, humanity coming together.”

Wilson thanked those who’ve been protesting and those who’ve been engaging and teaching others.

“These are important times,” Wilson said, acknowledging the importance of continuing to talk about issues and listening to people whose experience is different from our own. “We are at Salt Lake County right now doubling down on that commitment. ... It will take a very, very deep change within our community.”

McAdams said this year’s celebration should include some introspection and honesty about the realities facing black Americans.

“Juneteenth is traditionally a time of reflection and self-assessment,” McAdams said. “Today, our country faces an important moment of reckoning in the aftermath of horrific violence against black Americans. So today is a day when we all should engage in self-reflection and assessment about how we can be better as individuals, and how we can be better as a country.”

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2AQ5sSs