Opal Lee grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. Since she was a child, her family celebrated Juneteenth with food and baseball games. When she was 12 years old, only days after she and her family moved to a new house in a white neighborhood, a mob of 500 white supremacists rioted her home, vandalizing the furniture and setting the house on fire.
In 1943, at the age of 16, she graduated from I.M. Terrell High School – the first black high school in Fort Worth. At the age of 26, she received a Bachelor’s degree from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. She returned to Fort Worth and began her life-long career as an educator at Amanda McCoy Elementary School. She met Dale Lee, a principal at Morningside Elementary, and the couple got married. A few years later, they got divorced, and she was teaching during the days while working nights at Convair to support her children. Over the years, she was an active member of her community, serving on the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Community Action Agency board and organizing events for Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Juneteenth.
Lee earned her Master’s degree in Counseling and Guidance from North Texas State University and then worked as a Counselor for Fort Worth Independent School District until she retired in 1977 at the age of 51.
Upon her retainment, she took her community involvement to the next level. She was among the founding members of Citizens Concerned with Human Dignity and co-founded the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society, an organization that preserves the history of the city’s Black residence.
Lee’s main effort was always toward making Juneteenth a federal holiday, officializing the celebrations of the abolition of slavery. To promote the cause, every year on June 19, she led a 2.5-mile walk – representing the 2.5 years that passed from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865 until the news reached Texas, freeing more than 250,000 enslaved Black people and finalizing slavery in the US.
In 2016, Lee turned her focus nationally. At the age of 89, she launched an online petition to make the day a federal holiday, in which she pledged to walk from Texas to Washington, DC, if she receives 100,000 signatures. More than 1.5 million people signed the petition, and on the first week of September, Lee began the 1,400 miles of “Opal’s Walk.” Each day she walked the symbolic 2.5 miles, passing through Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and the Virginias, reaching Washington, DC, in January of 2017.
On June 17th, 2021, At the age of 94, Lee witnessed her lifetime efforts paying off as an honorary guest at the signing ceremony where President Joe Biden signed the bill that made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, Shares the Importance of this Historic Holiday | Southern Icons
Opal Lee, known in Fort Worth as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth", is a 94-year-old trailblazer on a mission to generate greater recognition for Juneteenth across the United States. Opal has dedicated her life to educating others about the history of Juneteenth, while also encouraging them to celebrate this historic holiday each year. The Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery on September 22, 1862, but slaves in Texas did not know that they had been freed. So, Juneteenth was first celebrated on June 19th, 1865, when General Gordon Granger and 7,000 black troops journeyed to tell 250,000 black enslaved people in Galveston, TX that they were free. Opal Lee leads a 2.5-mile march from Downtown Fort Worth, TX to signify the remaining length of time that these slaves in Texas were left in bondage. Today, Juneteenth symbolizes freedom, and it is a call to action for unity. Therefore, Opal Lee is currently advocating for Juneteenth’s consideration as a paid federal holiday! Tune in to learn more about this historic day, and how Opal Lee encourages others to work together to eradicate the racial disparity experienced in this country.
"None of us are free until we are all free, and freedom is what we still have to work towards." - Opal Lee
#Juneteenth #History #BlackHistory #Holiday #OpalLee
0:00 Introduction
0:17 What is Juneteenth?
1:28 How Dr. Ronald Myers impacted Juneteenth celebrations
2:15 Opal Lee's plans for Juneteenth 2021
2:48 Opal Lee's experience with racism on Juneteenth as a child
4:02 Miss Opal has hope for the next generation
4:40 Plans to make Juneteenth a National Federal Holiday
5:21 Opal Lee's Final Thoughts for freedom
Learn more about Opal Lee's mission here: https://www.southernliving.com/culture/opal-lee-grandmother-of-juneteenth
Follow Opal Lee on Instagram @TheRealOpalLee
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