He wants to make Juneteenth Day an official state holiday.

''I think it would be fitting to have this bill ready to go on that day,'' said Hansen, D-Ogden.

Juneteenth recognizes the day Texas slaves were told they were freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

If Hansen's bill passes, it will do so without a single black lawmaker there to support it. Utah's lone black legislator, Rep. Duane Bordeaux, D-Salt Lake City, retired earlier this year.

''It's been on my mind a couple years. Rep. Bordeaux worked together on it,'' Hansen said. ''I think it's time for our state.''

Less than 1 percent of Utah's 2.4 million population is black and, in 2001, the state became the last to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday.

''I applaud [Hansen] for doing it. We most certainly will get behind it and lobby for its passage,'' said Jeanetta Williams, president of Salt Lake branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in rebelling states beginning Jan. 1, 1863. It did not affect slaves in Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and parts of Virginia and Louisiana that were under federal control at the time. But slaves in Galveston, Texas, didn't know they were freed until June 19, 1865, about two months after the Civil War ended. That day has become known as Juneteenth Day.

In the past decade, there has been a growing movement to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday, with 19 states recognizing the day, including Texas, where it's a paid state holiday.

''Juneteenth is America's second Independence Day. On the Fourth of July, Americans of African descent were slaves,'' said Ronald Myers, chairman of the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign, by telephone from the Memphis, Tenn. airport.

''We're talking about an American celebration of freedom. The Fourth of July and the 19th of June complete the cycle of Independence Day celebrations in America. One is not complete without the other.''