Each year on June 19, Opal Lee makes a two-and-a-half-mile pilgrimage to commemorate the date in 1865.
, and Lee is eagerly anticipating the encounter. If they were attending in person, she says, “I’d hug him sure to death. I’ll be so glad to meet him and to thank him for all that he’s done.” via Zoom in early June, she’d just completed a walk in Galveston, Texas. The occasion was the city’s May 31 dedication ceremony for a 5,000-square-foot mural titled “Absolute Equality,” unveiled at the location where Maj. Gen.
As a native Texan — she was born in Marshall on Oct. 7, 1926 — Lee has been observing Juneteenth for as long as she can remember. Not all her memories of the holiday are happy ones. Paraphrasing civil rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer, Lee says, “None of us are free until we’re all free, and I’m not just talking about Black people. There are so many disparities that could be worked on.”
Additionally, a growing number of corporations across industries — including Nike, Postmates, Spotify, Target, Twitter, Uber and Variety’s parent company, PMC — have adopted the day as a paid holiday for their employees. “You excite me, just everything you stand for,” Combs said in their virtual meeting. “It’s important as we bring this young generation together to fight and to win this war … that it’s mixed and matched with the foundation of the pioneers and of our people, our elders in the tribe that want something done while they’re alive to see that.”
Brim has also been an eyewitness to the growth of Lee’s campaign, saying that Lee had only 12,000 signatures when they first met in early 2020. Since then, the 24-year-old multi-hyphenate has marched alongside Lee in Washington, D.C., which he calls, “a powerful moment I’ll forever cherish.”The duo also collaborated to design a pair of custom-painted Nike Air Force 1 sneakers in honor of the Juneteenth campaign.
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Meet Opal Lee, the 94-year-old Texan dubbed ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth’When she was 12, her childhood home was burned to the ground by white neighbors on June 19, 1939, because her family was Black.
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Opal Lee invites the public to annual Juneteenth Walk for FreedomThe Fort Worth woman who helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday is inviting people to join her on her annual Walk for Freedom.
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'Grandmother of Juneteenth' Opal Lee continues her walk for freedomThe grandmother of Juneteenth, Ms. Opal Lee, made her annual two and a half mile 'walk for freedom.' The walk represents the two and a half years it took for slaves to learn they were free in 1865.
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Juneteenth holiday federally recognized thanks in part to 95-year-old Opal Lee'I still pinch myself sometimes, to see if it really happened,' said Lee, known as the 'grandmother of Juneteenth.'
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Juneteenth holiday federally recognized thanks in part to 95-year-old Opal Lee'I still pinch myself sometimes, to see if it really happened,' said Lee, known as the 'grandmother of Juneteenth.'
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