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The 'Grandmother of Juneteenth,' Opal Lee, walked 2.5 miles through Texas to celebrate the liberation of the slaves on the first federally recognized Juneteenth.
The 94-year-old retired teacher from Fort Worth has advocated for decades to make June 19, the day that marks the official end of slavery in the U.S., a federal holiday. President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Thursday to nationally recognize the day.
Lee has an annual tradition to walk 2.5 miles from Evans Avenue Plaza to the Fort Worth courthouse to commemorate Juneteenth. For the past five years, she has led crowds on her walk, which distances symbolizes the two-and-a-half years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach slaves in Texas.
Lee addressed the crowd of marchers on Saturday, promoting her message of hope and gratitude.
"I'm so grateful for all your beautiful people," Lee said. "Please, please continue the kinds of things you know we need to become one people. It's not a white thing. It's not a Black thing. It's an American thing."
This year Lee walked with a new purpose as her vision was realized after 40 years of activism. But on the first federally recognized Juneteenth, Lee told the crowd that the work is not done.
"This is the beginning of our getting the disparities out of our communities so we can work as one," she said. "If people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love."
In 2016, at the age of 89, Lee set out to walk from her home in Fort Worth to the White House. She planned to ask then-President Barak Obama to make Juneteenth a federal holiday after walking 1,400 miles.
"I thought maybe, if an old lady started out, somebody would take notice," she said at the start of her walk, according to Houston Public Media. "And maybe the president and Congress would say we don't want that woman dying on our watch, get on up here so she can go home."
A petition launched by Lee more than two years ago amassed over 1.5 million signatures in support of making June 19 a federal holiday.
When Biden signed the Juneteenth bill into law, Lee was standing next to him. Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and female vice president, held Lee close to her as the bill was signed. Lee received the first pen that Biden used to sign the document.
"We're blessed to make this day in the presence of Miss Opal Lee -- as my mother said 'God love her'... Miss Opal, you're incredible," Biden said. "A daughter of Texas, grandmother of the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday."
After walking thousands of miles to bring attention to the importance of Juneteenth, Lee inspired a message of perseverance.
"Remember: together, we can conquer the world," Lee said.
