Opal Lee: The Grandmother Of Juneteenth And Her Inspiring Journey

For decades, Opal Lee campaigned to make Juneteenth a national holiday. She never doubted it would happen one day, but she was determined to see it occur during her lifetime. In 2021, she got her wish when President Joe Biden signed a bill declaring June 19 a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. It happened in no small part due to Lee’s efforts, earning her the nickname “The Grandmother of Juneteenth,” as well as a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, which she ultimately didn’t win.

Now 97, Lee captured the world’s attention during a series of symbolic walks from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to the U.S. capital, beginning in late 2016, to advocate for the national holiday. She also spearheaded an online petition that she hoped would draw 100,000 signatures. It ended up with 1.6 million!

“I just remember thinking, ‘Gee, I’m 89 years old, and I think that there’s lots more that needs to be done,’” Lee said of her famous walks, which generated national news coverage and support from celebrities such as Usher, Pharrell Williams, and Lupita Nyong’o. Lee’s passion for Juneteenth is rooted in her appreciation for its history and her own personal experiences, both of which have left a lasting impact that’s fueled her activism.

A Personal Connection to Juneteenth

Lee was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1926, the eldest of three children. Her family moved to Fort Worth when she was 10, and two years later, she watched as 500 white rioters burned down her home, angry at the family for moving into a predominantly white neighborhood. “The people didn’t want us,” Lee said. “They started gathering. The paper said the police couldn’t control the mob.”

Her father came with a gun, and police told him that if he fired, they’d let the mob have them. They started throwing things at the house, and when they left, they took out the furniture and burned it along with the house. The fire took place on Juneteenth—June 19, 1939—and the significance of the date wasn’t lost on Lee. “The fact that it happened on the 19th day of June has spurred me to make people understand that Juneteenth is not just a festival,” she said.

After a career as an educator and home school counselor, Lee retired in 1976 and became active in community causes in the Fort Worth area, organizing the city’s annual Juneteenth celebration and co-founding the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society. Making Juneteenth a national holiday was never far from Lee’s mind, and she started an annual tradition of walking 2.5 miles, representing the two-and-a-half years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to reach the state of Texas.

A National Movement Blossoms

From September 2016 to January 2017, Lee traveled the country from Fort Worth to Washington, stopping in dozens of cities along the way for symbolic 2.5 mile walks to draw attention to her cause. She clarified that she didn’t walk every single mile from Texas to the nation’s capital: “I did some hundreds of them but not 1,400.” Her efforts inspired celebrities to amplify her activism. In a series of tweets, actor Lupita Nyong’o wrote in 2020: “Recognizing Juneteenth nationally would be one more way to acknowledge the intrinsic value of Black people and their history to the wealth and prosperity of the USA.”

Lee believes protests against systemic racism in response to the police killings of unarmed Black men like George Floyd in May 2020 helped bring more attention and garner support for the effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday. “I think it was, ‘Enough is enough,’” Lee said. “I think losing that man’s life just pushed us over the edge. We’ve put up with so much.”

Lee was present on June 17, 2021, when President Biden signed the bill into law that made Juneteenth a national holiday. Afterward, he gave her one of the pens used during the ceremony and got down on one knee to thank her and whisper to her as the gathered crowd applauded. “We’re blessed to mark the day in the presence of Ms. Opal Lee. As my mother would say, ‘God love her,’” Biden said during the ceremony. “Ms. Opal, you’re incredible. A daughter of Texas, grandmother of the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.”