SAN ANTONIO — 96-year-old Opal Lee, better known as “The Grandmother of Juneteenth,” is preparing to walk 2.5 miles Monday in Fort Worth. This is in honor of the federal holiday she spent years advocating for.
Sunday morning, the Fort Worth native was honored herself in the San Antonio area.
“As long as you’ve got breath in your body, you can make a difference,” Lee said.
True Vision Church in Kirby, TX invited Lee on stage during Sunday service to talk about her activism. She was then given an award by the church, alongside Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert.
“Her message of love, and of it being on every one of us, is a very important message for people to always hear,” Calvert said.
Calvert said Lee has lived a life full of service. She was an educator, mother, and helped start a food bank before she began campaigning for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday. It marks the emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States, more specifically the anniversary of an order that freed slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
“I had this feeling, that maybe I hadn’t done enough,” Lee said. "If people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love."
In 2016, she symbolically walked from her home in Fort Worth to the White House to deliver a petition. It would be years later, in 2021, she would get to stand next to President Joe Biden as he signed Juneteenth into law.
“I was so happy; I was so humble. I could’ve done a holy dance,” Lee said.
Lee said she wants this holiday to be about freedom for everyone.
“I say that I’m everybody’s grandma, cause grandmas... the children usually listen. And I’m wanting people to listen,” Lee said.