Opal Lee
“Grandmother of Juneteenth”
1926 – Present A.D.
When retired Texas teacher Opal Lee began her campaign, to have Juneteenth recognized as a national holiday in 2016, part of it was her walking from her Ft. Worth hometown to Washington at age eighty nine. Ten years later her effort culminated in the June, 2021 presidential signature of the Juneteenth Independence Day Act. A major accomplishment to be sure and her determination was later reflected when she said, “It’s going to be a national holiday; I have no doubt about it. My point is, let’s make it a holiday in my lifetime.” And she managed to do that at age 94—and she remains a living representative of the struggle at age nearly 100.
Born in Marshall, Texas in October, 1926.the great granddaughter of a slave, Opal Flake was ten-years-old when her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas. In 1939 when her parents purchased a house in what had previously been a mostly White area, a mob of White rioters swarmed over the house, vandalizing and burning it. Opal later said: “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.”
So what is Juneteenth? Actually, it was commemoration of when on June 19, 1865 right at the end of the Civil War in Galveston, Texas a Union army officer announced the end of slavery to local residents that due to the Emancipation Proclamation, signed on January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.. And officials wanted Texans—particularly formerly enslaved Blacks—to know about that decree. So over time the freedom announcement became a memorable event for the formerly enslaved, and especially for their descendants who continued to commemorate and celebrate the event and its meaning. And first in Texas.
Essentially when it was signed the Proclamation only affected the seceded states of the Confederacy, so there was no enforcement until after the war – actually the official end of slavery came with the passage of the 13th Amendment in late 1865. Still, many celebrated and commemorated the announcement anniversary with gatherings, calling it Jubilee Day or Freedom Day. These celebrations began to include festive gatherings with music, parades and – traditional in Texas—barbecues. Then over the years as Texans—particularly Blacks—moved out of the state they took the idea with them so it began to be observed in different parts of the country. It became a Texas state holiday in 1980.
Opal Flake attended Fort Worth’s first Black high school, graduated in 1943 and then married and she and her husband had four children. (She and her first husband would later divorce and she married Dale Lee, an elementary school principal, in 1967.) In 1952 she graduated from Wiley College in Marshall and then taught elementary school for 15 years, often working nights to support her children. She also attended what is now the University of North Texas earning a master’s degree.
Mrs. Lee worked with the Fort Worth school system until her retirement in 1977, but she continued to be involved in community activities. As she put it, “People who are old can’t sit in a rocking chair and wait for the Lord to come and get them. There’s still plenty of work to be done, and I’ll do what I can as long as I can.”
During that time Mrs. Lee was co-founder of the Tarrant County (Ft. Worth) Black Historical and Genealogical Society and part of their program was to organize local Juneteenth events, including walks. That may well have inspired the idea to expand the holiday to a national level and how she did it.
To accomplish her purpose—making Juneteenth a national holiday—she decided to walk to Washington with signed petitions as an indication of national support of the idea. At that time 47 states—besides Texas—had already established official Juneteenth holidays.
So Mrs. Lee began her walk, wearing a T shirt that inscribed “Opal’s Walk for Freedom” and according to author Michael Hurd, “…was joined by thousands carrying homemade signs of support (‘Go, Ms. Opal’) and walking with her in festive, joyous parades.”
As Mrs. Lee began her walk, she found sympathetic local assistance to help her find lodging along the way, and in the process she began to understand the reality and meaning of Juneteenth. “People who were just beginning to understand what the day was all about. Not just red soda water and barbecue, but there was meaning to it. People embraced Juneteenth,” Mrs. Lee said. Along the way she ended up with 1.5 million signatures to her petition.
The walk route was designed to not only attract publicity but also support for her cause. Though it was only about 1200 miles directly from Ft. Worth to Washington, Mrs. Lee regularly walked a specific distance of 2.5 miles, which symbolized the 2 1/2 years it took for news of freedom to reach Texas. Also, supporters suggested she detour from the straight line route to include Shreveport, Louisiana, Atlanta, Georgia, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Pueblo, Colorado, then Chicago and Philadelphia.
From her beginning in September, 2016 until her arrival in Washington four months later with the petition, Mrs. Lee and her supporters made the walk and then the work in Washington officialdom began. It culminated five years later when the legislation passed and President Joe Biden signed it on June 17, 2021. At the signing she attended as an honored guest and as was customary received one of the first pens the President used to sign the legislation. To honor her, Biden got down on one knee to greet Mrs. Lee who was sitting on the front row after a standing ovation.
Back home in Texas, Mrs. Lee was also honored for her activism for Black Texans with the designation of Texan of the Year by the Dallas Morning News in 2021, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2023 had the singular honor of having her portrait placed in the Texas Senate Chamber. And one particularly ironic reality was her work as a founding board member of an organization that worked to remodel a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium into a community center for arts and community healing. Fred Rouse, who the center was named for, was a Black man who had been lynched by a Fort Worth mob in 1921. She also received several honorary doctoral degrees including one from her alma mater, the University of North Texas in 2023 and also from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in May, 2023.
A more recent honor was Mrs. Lee in 2024 being awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden. A quite unique tribute was the issuing of the Opal Lee Collectable “Inspiring Women Doll” from Mattel, dressed in the blue “Opal’s Walk for Freedom” T Shirt wearing white pants and glasses.
She recently described her ultimate purpose: “I want the young people to realize how important Black history is and for them to embrace it, know their history and pass it on,” Then she added, “The road to true freedom is long, but I’ve walked it my whole life.”
References:
Wikipedia
Women’s History
Michael Hurd, “Giant Footsteps”, Texas Co-Op magazine, June, 2026.
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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.
