Juneteenth’s Opal Lee and the Ongoing Fight for Freedom

On December 31, 1862, enslaved people and free Black people gathered together, heavily awaiting the news that President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. Lincoln officially signed the Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that all people held as slaves within the Confederate states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

A native of Texas, [Lee] understands on a personal level that no one is free until all of us are free.

This announcement did not reach every enslaved person, however. It was not until over two years later—on June 19, 1865—that General Gordon Granger and his Union troops rode into Galveston, TX, to order the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation and declare that Black people living there were free. That is why June 19, or Juneteenth, has come to be celebrated as a National Independence Day.

It’s hard to find someone who embodies the meaning of Juneteenth more than Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth. Lee received her moniker because in 2016, at the age of 89, she began a campaign to raise awareness about the meaning of Juneteenth. She walked from Fort Worth, TX, to Washington, DC, to campaign for Juneteenth to become a national holiday. She also organized walks in cities across the country as she educated people about the significance of the day when Black people in Texas were informed of their freedom.

Ultimately, her work was pivotal in Congress voting to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021. For her efforts, Lee was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In 2023, Lee became the second Black person to have her portrait hung in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol—and in 2024, President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Lee never gave up hope of someday owning her family’s land….She was determined to reclaim space.

A native of Texas, she understands on a personal level that no one is free until all of us are free. She understands that even after chattel slavery ended, even after Black people in Galveston were made aware of their freedom on Juneteenth, Black people in America had to fight a continuous battle to fully secure their freedom—a fight that continues today.

In fact, even as Americans across the country commemorate Juneteenth, it is important to also remember June 19, 1939—the day when 12-year-old Lee and her family were run out of their home by hundreds of White rioters who did not want Black people living in their neighborhood.

In recent years, as she was engaging in her activism around Juneteenth, Lee began to think about her childhood home, which she got to live in for just four days before White supremacists burned it to the ground. Lee never gave up hope of someday owning her family’s land. Like many other Black women across the South, she was determined to reclaim space.

Initially, her goal was to purchase the land, which had recently been bought by Trinity Habitat for Humanity, where she used to serve on the board of directors. The CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity, Gage Yager, was a friend Lee had known for years. Yager decided that instead of Lee buying the property, it should be gifted to her.

“You’ve got to work at it, but if people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love.”

In exchange for $10, Lee was gifted the property in 2024, with the help of several Texas organizations, including Trinity Habitat for Humanity, which helped build her a home in the same spot where her childhood home was burned down.

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Yager said gifting Lee does not right the wrong, “but it does bring it full circle.” Indeed, as someone who has seen progress throughout history and understands the ongoing work to be done, Lee knows that change can come if we work toward it.

In an interview at an event celebrating the completion of her new home, Lee said, “It’s not going to happen in a day. You’ve got to work at it, but if people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love.”