Utah Juneteenth organizers work to continue conversation

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In this 2020 photo, Salt Lake City Juneteenth organizers dance in Washington Square Park during celebrations in Salt Lake City. As weekend celebrations for Juneteenth begin, Utah organizers are working to keep conversations around racial equality going in 2021’s events. The day that falls Saturday is set to commemorate the final emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. It became a federal holiday in 2021, and several events are planned in Utah. (Ivana Martinez/KUER via AP)

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Betty Sawyer, Project Success Coalition and Utah Juneteenth Freedom and Heritage Festival executive director, raises a Juneteenth flag during a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony outside of the City-County Building in Salt Lake City, Friday, June 18, 2021. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

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Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, left, Kaletta Lynch, Salt Lake City chief equity officer, and Betty Sawyer, Project Success Coalition and Utah Juneteenth Freedom and Heritage Festival executive director, chat before a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony outside of the City-County Building in Salt Lake City, Friday, June 18, 2021. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

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Betty Sawyer, Project Success Coalition and Utah Juneteenth Freedom and Heritage Festival executive director, speaks during a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony outside of the City-County Building in Salt Lake City, on Friday, June 18, 2021. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As weekend celebrations for Juneteenth begin, Utah organizers are working to keep conversations around racial equality going in this year’s events.

The day that falls Saturday is set to commemorate the final emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. It became a federal holiday this week and several events are planned in Utah.

Betty Sawyer, an organizer with Utah Juneteenth Festival, tells KUER she been organizing an annual event in Ogden for the last 32 years. “We commemorate, we educate (and) we have that call to action,” she said. “We’re dealing with the byproducts of our racialized history each and every day, right here — in our current educational settings, in our current health settings (and) in our current criminal and juvenile justice systems.”

Daud Mumin, an organizer with Utah Juneteenth in Salt Lake City, said he was inspired to organize the local event for a second year after one mother came up to him last year and said her family had never got to experience something like that.

“People in our communities deserve moments like this, regardless of the structural and institutional injustices we’re fighting against,” he said. “People deserve moments of joy, whether it’s one night a year for a few hours.”