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Meet the Grandmother of Juneteenth
Retired teacher Opal Lee, 95, shares how she sparked the movement that turned a cherished tradition into our newest national holiday. Plus: free online event!

Have you ever had a gut feeling about something? I felt, positively, like I hadn’t done enough with my life. I’d finished college, gotten a master’s degree, taught school, worked as a social worker, had children. We had a farm. Our food bank served 500 families a day. I was volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. But even into my 80s, I had a nagging feeling that I should be doing more.

And I had always thought that Juneteenth was a day everybody ought to know about: the day in 1865 when the last of the people held in bondage in Texas learned they were free. So, in 2016, I began a march from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to draw attention to Juneteenth. I didn’t walk the whole way, but I did make it to Washington. In 2019, I started a petition, and we garnered 1.5 million signatures in favor of the holiday. People talked about it. And, of course, the death of George Floyd and the demonstrations for social justice that followed have helped draw attention to the cause. The fact that Juneteenth became a national holiday in my lifetime—I’m still on cloud nine. I could do a holy dance except they’d say I was twerking!

Older people don’t always remember this, but we have power. We have so much to teach the younger generations. I know some people are afraid. They don’t want to be bothered, or they draw into themselves. But the future depends on us.

Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 @RonFilipkowski wrote: While showing photos of black people drinking, Newsmax host Greg Kelly says the Juneteenth holiday is just an excuse for people in “urban areas” to drink, get high, smoke weed, and riot.