Who Is Opal Lee? Meet The 98-Year-Old Powerhouse Behind Making Juneteenth A National Holiday - Page 2
Opal Lee Walked 1,400 Miles to Fight For Juneteenth to be a Holiday
At 89-years-old, Lee made it her duty to fight for Juneteenth to be recognized as a holiday across the nation. In 2016, she walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., in hopes of getting Congress’ attention. Each day she walked two and a half miles. The daily distance symbolized the two and a half years it took for slaves in Galveston, Texas, to be notified of slavery’s end in 1865 after it was abolished in 1863.
“I decided that surely there was something I could do to bring attention to the fact that we needed Juneteenth as a national holiday,” Lee told Blavity. “So I decided, if a little old lady in tennis shoes was walking toward Washington, D.C., somebody would take notice.”
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Opal Lee, ‘Grandmother Of Juneteenth,’ Explains Why Young People Should Vote: ‘The Lord Hears Our Prayers’ - Page 2
In 2020, she garnered 1.5 million signatures on her petition to have Juneteenth made into a holiday, according to Fort Worth Magazine.
