FORT WORTH, Texas — Opal Lee, the Texan who helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday, spent her 100th birthday Wednesday at the center of celebrations in her hometown, The Associated Press reported.
Crews broke ground in Fort Worth on the National Juneteenth Museum, a planned 50,000-square-foot museum in a historically Black neighborhood that is projected to open in 2029.
Lee expressed her gratitude after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a $3 million donation to the museum. “I’m so happy I could do a holy dance, and these old legs won’t respond, but let me tell you how thankful I am,” she said.
Former first lady Michelle Obama was expected to join museum leaders later in the day for an event honoring Lee, widely known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Lee was at President Joe Biden’s side in 2021 when he signed the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston with an order declaring freedom for enslaved people in Texas, about two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lee worked for decades in Fort Worth as a teacher, counselor and community activist. “You always reminded us that history is not something you leave behind,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee H. Toliver said at the event.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Mrs. Charles Stephenson (Grace Murray) / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
