Each year, the Salt Lake NAACP recognizes a community leader who advocates for justice, equal opportunity and community empowerment. At the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Luncheon in January, Utah Senate Democratic Leader Luz Escamilla was honored with this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Award.

Escamilla was elected to the Utah Senate in 2008 and is now serving her fifth term, representing Senate District 10, which covers portions of Salt Lake City and West Valley. Escamilla serves as vice-chair of the Senate Ethics committee and champions policies she believes strengthen families, expand opportunity and protect the rights of all Utahns.

“Dr. King taught us that the greatest danger to justice is not loud hatred, but quiet acceptance,” she said. “Not just overt cruelty, but systems that institutionalize injustice. He warned us that injustice thrives when it is legalized, bureaucratized and justified as necessary. This lesson matters. It mattered then, and it matters now more than ever, especially here in Utah.”

This year’s award theme, “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” reflects King’s call for action and accountability in the face of injustice. At the luncheon, Escamilla spoke out against a proposed 7,500-bed ICE detention center in Salt Lake and said Utah faces a moral crossroad where people must decide whether they choose fear or courage, whether they will learn from history or repeat harsh lessons from the past. 

“As a woman of color and an immigrant, I carry this reality with me every day, and I feel for all the families and children who are fearful that you can’t believe in the power of the beloved community,” she said. “Dr. King often reminded us that the law is not the same as justice. He challenged the idea that legality alone makes something right. He called on people of conscience to disrupt unjust systems even when they were politically inconvenient.”

Salt Lake NAACP President Jeanetta Williams said the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. award recognizes individuals whose service and leadership advance the ideas of advocacy and a deep commitment to equity. 

The organization is dedicated to ensuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights for all persons and to eliminating discrimination based on race. Williams said Escamilla’s accomplishments include helping to establish the West High School medical clinic for students and fighting for social justice for people across all demographics.

“The award honors a Utah citizen whose work has advanced civil rights in our state through Dr. King’s legacy of nonviolence,” Williams said. “We looked at a lot of the legislative bills that Sen. Escamilla had worked on, some passed, some didn’t, but for the most part, the bills affected the entire state of Utah and followed the vision of Dr. King.”

Originally from Mexico, Escamilla became the first immigrant elected to the Utah Legislature and the first Latina elected to the Utah Senate. She said she’s committed to building community as a promise to protect each other, especially during times of fear. 

“To everyone else: organizing and advocating and speaking out at this moment, you are carrying the legacy of Dr. King,” Escamilla said. “I accept this award, and I celebrate it in a personal way, but I’m also seeing it as a charge. A charge to speak the truth, to stand firm and not be afraid, and to ensure that when history looks back on this moment, it will say that Utah did the right thing and that we choose justice, that we choose courage, and that we choose each other, with love.”