The “Grandmother of Juneteenth” raised me
Ralph McCloud
Today we celebrate Juneteenth — Emancipation Day — marking the date when enslaved Africans in Texas learned that the Civil War was over, and that they were finally free.
Although this celebration is still new to many, it’s one I have commemorated since I was young, because I was raised with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Her name is Opal Lee.
Opal was my neighbor, mentor, and friend in Fort Worth, Texas, where I grew up.
As a child, I remember Opal spearheading efforts to commemorate Juneteenth in Fort Worth. She would organize pageants, parades, concerts, rallies, and sincere conversations about the impacts of slavery and the responsibility of being “free.” She engaged us in Texas long before such celebrations were popular for the rest of the nation.
It slowly became her life’s work. Over the course of decades Opal led the effort — first at the state level and eventually on to the national stage — to earn federal recognition for the holiday we had celebrated my whole life.
In 2016, at 90 years old, Opal made a 1,400-mile journey from Fort Worth to Washington, DC. She walked 2.5 miles every day, honoring the 2.5 years it took for enslaved people in Texas to receive the message that they had been freed. She finished her walk in 2017, and in 2021 President Biden declared Juneteenth a national holiday.
“[Juneteenth] is not a Black thing or a Texas thing,” Opal would say. “Freedom is for everybody; If it’s not, we’re not free yet.”
At 96, even with the national holiday codified, she still engages, still challenges, still works on behalf of those who are marginalized.
What does Opal’s story mean for each of us, working for justice in our own ways?
It is my hope that her legacy — her relentless, never-tiring energy — will inspire you in the way it has inspired me: to work tirelessly, tenaciously, and communally as we journey for justice.
Until we all are free.
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