Opal Lee helped make Juneteenth a national holiday. And at age 95, she's just getting started.
Rodger Madison / Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Getty ImagesAt age 89—an age when most people would consider settling down—Opal Lee embarked on the biggest journey of her life.
Her efforts eventually paid off. President Joe Biden signed the federal holiday into law in June of this year. He called Lee an Valerie Biden continued: “If she doesn’t prove that success can happen at any age, I don’t know who does.”Juneteenth is the celebration of June 19th, 1865, when slaves learned the news of their freedom. The date marked two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
On Juneteenth of 1939, however, an unspeakable tragedy marked Lee’s family forever. When she was only 12, a mob of about 500 white rioters set fire to the family’s house, destroying the structure and the furniture. Local police officers warned her father not to shoot the attackers, or they would let the whole mob at him.
Over the years, Lee graduated college, had four kids and worked as an educator and activist. But Juneteenth became something of an “obsession,” she said.“I just never felt like I was doing enough,” Lee said. “We celebrate the 4th of July, but weren’t free on the 4th of July in 1776. I want everybody to be aware that freedom is for everybody, not just for a few. And I’ll be stressing that as long as I got a little breath in me.
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