Fort Worth honors Juneteenth by walking 2.5 miles with Opal Lee, ‘grandmother’ of holiday

June 18,2022

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SEE FULL FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM ARTICLE BY Jessica Harkey HERE.

After a lifetime of advocacy, a 1,400-mile walk to Washington, D.C., and a 2.5-mile trek through Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon in blazing heat, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” 95-year-old Opal Lee, says the work isn’t over yet. “Juneteenth is freedom, and I’m advocating that we celebrate freedom from the 19th of June to the 4th of July, but I want you to make yourself a committee of one, because you know people who aren’t on the same page as you,” Lee said after her three-hour on-foot journey. “You’re going to have to change their minds,” Lee continued. “We took 1.5 million signatures to Congress and we were prepared to take that many more when we got the call to the White House. Can you just imagine 3 million people on the same page? We could turn this country around.”