Betty Sawyer on planning the ‘big family reunion’ that is Juneteenth

Two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union Army General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops, many of whom were Black, marched into Galveston, Texas, to announce that “in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

The proclamation, and the armed soldiers enforcing it, liberated an estimated 250,000 enslaved Blacks throughout Texas. That day, June 19, 1865, came to be known as “Emancipation Day” and has been celebrated locally ever since.

In 1980, Texas began observing Juneteenth as a state holiday. It was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, becoming the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.

This month marks the second time that Juneteenth has been observed as an official state holiday in Utah, after a bill sponsored by Rep. Sandra Hollins, the first Black woman to serve in the Utah Legislature, was signed into law in 2022.

Betty Sawyer is the Ogden NAACP president and executive director of the Project Success Coalition, which sponsors Utah’s Juneteenth Freedom & Heritage Festival, now in its 34th year. She spoke to the Deseret News about the significance of the festival, its history and her hopes for the future of Utah.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Deseret News: Did you grow up with Juneteenth traditions?

Betty Sawyer: I did not. I’m originally from Maryland, and Juneteenth was not something we celebrated when I was young. It was pretty common not to grow up with Juneteenth unless you have some roots in the Texas or Oklahoma area where the traditions first sprang up.

In Maryland, they had a Kunta Kinte festival in some areas, because that’s where a lot of Africans ended up coming onto the shores of Maryland, whether in the Annapolis area, or all the way down the Chesapeake Bay.

DN: When did Juneteenth became more of a nationally recognized celebration?

Sawyer: Around the mid ’80s, we had organizations popping up in the South, in the North and the East that were beginning to have Juneteenth celebrations. And we had a couple of national organizations start like the National Juneteenth Foundation; we had a Juneteenth America organization that was going for a while, during that time.

DN: Many people are just becoming familiar with Juneteenth since it is new to Utah at a state level, and only became a federal holiday two years ago. Is it a celebration of freedom? Is it a mourning of slavery? Is it a combination of both?

Sawyer: 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. Our whole history of enslavement in this country requires that kind of observation and reckoning for us as people, who had to endure those things, as well as for those who were a part of perpetuating those, for lack of a better term, injustices and atrocities on another people.

DN: What did you learn about Utah, working with the cities and residents during the process of planning for these events?

Sawyer: One of the models that I’ve adopted in the work that we do in the community is (that it’s a) labor of love. We try to approach everything we do from that perspective of love — for humanity, love for our brothers and sisters. Ubuntu (the ancient African word) — “I am because we are, and because we are, therefore I am.”

So when we approach other people that may not look like us, or have those same experiences, we try to lead with love. And that’s what we usually get back in return. We’ve found that people have been pretty open to exploring and expanding their understanding and knowledge about Juneteenth. And when they’re not, we try to give them the grace to share where they aren’t comfortable, or what they don’t know. We all learn and grow together in coming to some common understandings.

Even with trying to get a state holiday passed, the first couple of times we tried, it didn’t go anywhere. But we didn’t give up. We kept going back, doing more events, and the word spread and people became more ready to take a closer look. We were invited to help educate lawmakers, city councils, sit down with mayors to talk about what Juneteenth is really all about. With that, we’ve had more and more cities doing Juneteenth commemorations. We have more higher ed institutions doing Juneteenth commemorations, and it continues to grow.

DN: What role does education play in the pursuit of justice and inclusion?

Sawyer: A huge role. Malcolm X said education is a passport to the future. Education is the cornerstone of who we say we are, and what we believe in. It starts in the home, of course, but through all levels, it’s critical for us to broaden our horizons, broaden our own information and knowledge base.

I didn’t grow up with Juneteenth, but when I came here, I continued to learn about Juneteenth. It’s important that it is a part of our education process. So when we hear and see, even on the local level, us trying to limit education around history and culture, and equity and diversity and inclusion — it’s extremely concerning, because that’s how we grow. And so I want people to learn more and more, not less.

Education is key. And even with our celebrations, we put a lot of emphasis on education during the event, through the activities. So it’s not just a celebration. We include education; we include opportunities for service. And, of course, the healing part and reconciliation. Being able to say, “I made some mistakes. Forgive me. I’m sorry. What can I do? How can we work together to make this country and state and city a better place?”

DN: What do you see as the largest sources of disparity in our state today?

Sawyer: I think, in general, a lot of it centers around economic inequality. Poverty impacts all parts of a person’s life. If there’s economic inequality, then education is impacted, healthcare is impacted, physical and mental health is impacted. Homeownership is impacted by those things.

Being able to have an equitable and fair standard of living is extremely important — the ability to get into a decent rental apartment. It’s prohibitive. If you’re not addressing that piece, then everything upstream from there is going to be a struggle for everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity. But then when it comes to race and ethnicity, because of those institutional barriers and structural inequalities, it’s more impactful on that population than others.

DN: You mentioned that communities of Black people in Utah are not monolithic. I read a statistic that said it’s much more likely for a Black Utahn to be from out of state than born here. Does this celebration help encourage unity among the diverse populations of Black people in the state?

Sawyer: Definitely. That’s a big part of it. This is our big party. This is our big family reunion. We intentionally reach out to invite folk from all walks of life to join in. Our African organizations are part of our celebration. They’ll be tabling, they’re performing and just coming to hang out to meet other people. We intentionally reach out to the military community, our college and university community, private sector, public sector. This is an opportunity for you to meet, intermingle, develop new relationships, and just celebrate being in Utah at the same time and place.

DN: Your coalition’s motto is “Keeping hope alive.” What is your hope for the future of our state?

Sawyer: Well, I have such big hopes. I have such huge hopes. 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.

A few years ago, the governor and others signed the Compact on Racial Equity. The document is very profound. But like any other document, if you’re not putting in benchmarks and milestones and people being accountable for doing the work, it’s just another great idea that got started. I think it’s important that we grab those things, really set goals, responsibility, expectations and accountability to move the needle forward. We have the data, we know what’s going on. So what are we going to do about it? And how are we going to hold ourselves accountable?

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.

DN: What can we look forward to in the celebration this year? And what does it mean to you?

Sawyer: It happens that our Juneteenth celebration is around Father’s Day weekend. So that’s really important to me, for us to be able to lift up the men and the fathers in our community and celebrate them. Another day, another opportunity, a new horizon. For me, when I celebrate Juneteenth each year, it’s a reminder that there is hope, and there’s work to be done, bringing us to this better place Dr. King called “that beloved community.” Where we are really caring for each other and supporting each other and taking care of that business that is important for us to not just survive, but to thrive and have a prosperous future.

For a calendar of Utah Juneteenth events, see this schedule. Sawyer recommends visiting the Ogden NAACP website or the Juneteenth Foundation website to find resources and learn more about the history of Juneteenth.