Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, saw her brand new home on Annie Street for the first time on Friday morning.
The light in her eyes overseeing the new house turned into a bittersweet moment, knowing that her family experienced their darkest days on that very plot of land"I don't have but one word – scrumptious,” she said with a laugh. “I am so happy. I just wish everybody could be as happy as I am now.”
"Would you believe that the newspaper said there were about 500 people gathered across the street over there," Lee said."And do you know the policemen were all there and when my dad came home from work with a gun the police told him if he busted a cap, they would let the mob have us."That day, that angry mob burned her family home to the ground. She said at the time she barely knew what was happening.
She never lost sight of the fact that she wanted that land her family's home used to stand on, that has been vacant for so long. Lee eventually found out that Trinity Habitat for Humanity owned that land, a nonprofit that coincidentally, she is a founding member of. For their part in history, Trinity Habitat’s CEO Gage Yager partnered with Dr. Lee’s nonprofit, Citizens Concerned with Human Dignity, to break ground on the historic lot. They told NBC 5 it was a fitting gift for Lee’s lifelong dedication to racial justice, affordable housing, and her influence within the community. They sold the land to her for $10, just to make the transaction legal.
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