Utahns honor Jacksonville shooting victims, March on Washington
"How many times must we bury Emmett Till?"
It was a question Darlene McDonald first asked six years ago in downtown Salt Lake City as Utahns gathered to mourn a deadly car attack during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. She asked herself again at Sugar House Park in 2020, while walking in solidarity with Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot in a hate crime.
On Monday night, she asked the same question in the wake of the deaths of three Black Floridians who were killed over the weekend in what police say was a racially motivated shooting.
"If I have to be here next year, I will be here next year. I'm hoping that I don't have to," said McDonald, director of 1Utah Project. "I'm hoping that it's a different reason for us to be here, not this one, two days later, after another shooting of people because of the color of their skin. Not that reason. Let's come together because we love one another, not because there has been a hateful event that happened and we need to stand up."
McDonald and a few dozen others gathered at the Utah Capitol for a vigil and rally to both honor those who were killed in Jacksonville and to recognize the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.
Betty Sawyer, Ogden NAACP president, said consistently hearing about tragedies like the one in Florida can have a numbing effect.
"We cannot let that be the case. Every life is precious, and for us to nonchalantly go about our business like this isn't a big deal — it is. We have to take a stand for love and a stand against hate," Sawyer said. "I should not be in the same place 60 years later fighting the same fight at the same time we have folks that are saying, 'Racism don't exist. That's the past. We don't need to talk about it.'"
She added that while what happened in Florida is horrific, those in the Beehive state also need to pay attention to what's happening close to home.
"This is home. We're going to look at Utah. We're not just going to look, we're going to demand change in Utah," she said. "We have senators and other folks trying to pass legislation to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion."
A number of speakers criticized those who cherry-pick Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s quotes.
"It's probably on social media today talking about the, 'We want to be judged by the content of our character, rather than the color of our skin.' But the irony has not been lost on me that, two days ago, the skin color was what the shooter decided he was going to react to," said the Rev. Robert Merrill of Calvary Baptist Church.
"And so while it might have sounded great," he continued, "it might be one of those things we call on, 'Oh, we want that. It's an ideal.' No, it's real, and it's something we need to keep be aware of and keep conscious in our minds that yes, people still target others because of their skin color."
Jeanetta Williams, who leads the NAACP Salt Lake, also questioned what King would say to today.
"Dr. King would say to us that he gave his life for the cause, and now we must continue to fight," Williams said, specifying that Utahns should stand up to white-washing of U.S. history and gun violence. "That's how we can fight back and make sure that when we go to the ballot, that our vote does count and we are making a difference.
