Juneteenth recognition a shoo-in?

The sponsor of a bill that would give official state recognition to Juneteenth Independence Day doesn't expect his proposal to generate much controversy.

But a chairman of the committee scheduled to hear the bill today has a different view.

"I think it will be controversial," predicted Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, co-chairman of the Government Operations Interim Committee.

Juneteenth is celebrated annually to mark June 19, 1865, when slaves in Galveston, Texas, were informed they were free, some 2 1/2 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the Confederate States.

Juneteenth is celebrated in Utah but is not officially observed as a holiday or commemorative day, as it is in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

The proposal by Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, would create a state commemorative day recognizing Juneteenth on the third Saturday in June.

"To me, when I look at Juneteenth and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, it's part of the history of the United States," Hansen said. "There is a pattern and history behind it. It's time we recognize it."

Official state recognition of emancipation would give Utah's black community something to embrace "as a testament to their history and culture," said Betty Sawyer, director of the Utah Juneteenth Committee and president of the Ogden Branch of the NAACP.

"We know pioneers came on a particular day, and we still celebrate that as a state holiday," she said. "The celebration of freedom is important. We all know that when the Constitution was written, blacks were considered less than human."

Since the recognition would be largely symbolic — it falls short of a state holiday and paid time off for state employees — Hansen doesn't foresee any controversy.

The Ogden lawmaker hopes the committee will unanimously support his bill today. That support would help put it on a fast-track for approval on the first day of the 2007 legislative session, which falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Hellewell said he wanted to hear from the sponsor of the bill before making a decision on it.

But based on past controversies surrounding similar symbolic issues, Hellewell doubted the bill would garner the unanimous support to become a "committee bill" and get fast-tracked.

"Even then, if a bill is controversial at all, it goes to standing committee," he said.