Sometimes the long haul is long…If you start something, be sure you’re going to finish it.
About the speaker
Meet our speaker for June: Ms. Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” on Matriarchy
At 95, Opal Lee still campaigns tirelessly to make Juneteenth a national holiday. In February, she was honored by Visit Fort Worth at the group’s annual meeting. In March, she appeared with NBA star Carmelo Anthony in a live-streaming event. And on June 19, she led a caravan from the Historic Southside to downtown to commemorate freedom from slavery.
As a young girl of 12, she experienced the horror of racism firsthand as a white mob set fire to her family’s Fort Worth home. That hate crime propelled her into a life of education and activism. She holds a master’s degree in counseling and guidance and worked for the Fort Worth Independent School District until she retired in 1977.
In 2016, at the age of 89, she gained widespread acclaim when she decided to walk from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, DC, in an effort to get Juneteenth named a national holiday—an event that has become the annual “Opal’s Walk” in Fort Worth.
Don’t miss your opportunity to hear Opal Lee’s inspirational story during the CreativeMornings Fort Worth event in June. We’ll be broadcasting Live from Opal’s urban farm on the banks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth.
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