By McKenzie Romero | Editor
On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas learned they had been freed, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The people celebrated, and looked toward a new future.
What would they have seen if they’d gotten a glimpse of Utah in 2026? For Betty Sawyer, the day has grown from a small celebration into an expanding festival. At the same time, mounting legislation is restricting diversity initiatives in the state, down to raising the Juneteenth flag.
In this Juneteenth edition of the Dispatch, we hear from Black Utahns about what the day means to communities in the state. Our full weekday newsletter returns Monday.
“This year’s Juneteenth is this bittersweet kind of space. While we can celebrate and honor where we’ve come, we still have to gear ourselves up for this long fight to reach back and regain the grounds that have been lost.” — Betty Sawyer, executive director of Project Success Coalition, who has organized Juneteenth celebrations for the past 37 years.
Betty Sawyer, center, greets community advocates during Millcreek’s Juneteenth Eve celebration on June 18, 2026. (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
Betty Sawyer, the executive director of Project Success Coalition, an Ogden grassroots nonprofit focused on health education, culture and advocacy, has heavily advocated for state Juneteenth recognitions. She says she hopes that the holiday helps people learn more about Black history, which she says is American and world history.
As part of her advocacy efforts, Sawyer stood next to elected officials during a signing ceremony of a law declaring Juneteenth an official state holiday in 2022. She has also watched new traditions emerging from new state regulations that the Legislature’s Republican Supermajority has passed to overhaul diversity efforts and symbols in a call for neutrality in public spaces.
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