Opal Lee: An Example of Passionate Commitment

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but the news did not arrive in Texas until June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. (Source: Juneteenth: Fact Sheet by Devon Galena. Congressional Research Service, R44865, VERSION 28, UPDATED. May 30, 2023.)

Opal Lee, a former schoolteacher and counselor, found a cause that motivated her to stay in action. The events that sparked her activism occurred when she was only 12 years old. In June 1939, her parents bought a home in a predominantly white neighborhood. On June 19, 1939, 500 white rioters vandalized and burned down her home. (Source: “Opal Lee’s Push Making Juneteenth a National Holiday” by Cory McGinnis. YouTube, June 16, 2021.)

After retiring from teaching, Lee became a founding member of the Tarrant County Black Historical Society in Fort Worth, Texas. She helped organize the annual Juneteenth celebration in her community. Texans began celebrating Juneteenth in 1866. On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth became a Texas state holiday. She believed the date was significant enough to be recognized as a national holiday, and she set a goal to make it happen. Her little became much as she began engaging in a 2.5 mile walk each year representing the 2.5 years it took for the news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas.

Opal Lee was 89 years old when she began “Opal’s Walk 2 DC” in 2016, a symbolic walk from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to advocate for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday. I had the pleasure of meeting her and hearing her tell stories with passion, pride and a touch of humility as she said, “I am just a little old lady in tennis shoes, trying to take steps for something I believe in.”

On June 17, 2021, her efforts to make Juneteenth a federal holiday succeeded when Senate Bill S.475 was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

In 2022, Opal Lee was nominated by 33 members of Congress for a Nobel Peace Prize. Opal Lee is now 96 years old, and she is still carrying the same messages, “None of us is free until all of us are free.” “You got to help people if you can,” she said. “And I still can.”

On May 5, 2023, Opal Lee received an honorary doctorate degree from her alma mater, the University of North Texas. Thank you for your example of commitment and service, Dr. Opal Lee!