Confetti falls as Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, reacts during her 100th birthday celebration Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Fort Worth. The ceremony marked the clearing of Fort Worth’s Southside Community Center and the start of construction on the National Juneteenth Museum.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
People cheers around Opal Lee as she makes her way for a photo opportunity during her 100th birthday celebration, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Fort Worth. The ceremony marked the clearing of Fort Worth’s Southside Community Center and the start of construction on the National Juneteenth Museum.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
People gather during a ceremony honoring Opal Lee’s 100th birthday and marking the clearing of Fort Worth’s Southside Community Center for construction of the National Juneteenth Museum Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Fort Worth.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, speaks during a ceremony honoring her 100th birthday Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Fort Worth. The ceremony marked the clearing of Fort Worth’s Southside Community Center and the start of construction on the National Juneteenth Museum.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Opal Lee reacts as she receives a $3 million check from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during a ceremony honoring her 100th birthday Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Fort Worth. The ceremony marked the clearing of Fort Worth’s Southside Community Center and the start of construction on the National Juneteenth Museum.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH — Opal Lee, born three years before the Great Depression, lived through World War II, raised her children and earned a college degree in a segregated Jim Crow-era Texas.
On Wednesday, the civil rights leader celebrated her 100th birthday with a shower of confetti, music and a major step in her longtime dream: opening a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.
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Opal Lee, the Fort Worth legend whose civil rights activism helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday, turned 100 on Oct. 7. She was honored at a ceremony in Fort Worth that marked the clearing of the Southside Community Center, where the National Juneteenth Museum will be built. “I could do a holy dance,” Lee said during brief remarks. “I’m gonna keep on walking, keep on talking.”
Shafkat Anowar, The Dallas Morning News
Community leaders marked Lee’s birthday with the start of demolition of the Southside Community Center, the site of the future national museum. She planned to spend the evening at a ticketed event with former first lady Michelle Obama.
“I could do a holy dance,” Lee said during brief remarks. “I’m gonna keep on walking, keep on talking.”
The crowd sang the chorus of Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday to Lee, cheered when the bulldozer cleared the first chunk of building and clamored for a sight of the centenarian, who wore a pink and yellow lei and striped blue and white shirt.
Beneath a white tent, elected officials and other dignitaries praised Lee for her unrelenting advocacy to highlight Juneteenth and share American and Black history, even as some in Texas and the country have worked to scale back lessons about slavery and racism in schools.
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“Dr. Opal Lee has spent her life making sure no one forgets what freedom costs and what it means,” said State Rep. Nicole Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat. “The best gift we can give her is to finish what she started, and we will.”
Related: Opal Lee turns 100. Here’s how the ‘grandmother of Juneteenth’ will celebrate
Opal Lee was only 12 years old when a white mob gathered outside her family’s home on Annie Street in Fort Worth on June 19, eventually storming inside and torching furniture. Lee, her siblings and parents were forced to flee.
That traumatic event would push Lee toward a career as a public school teacher and activist. After she retired in 1977, she turned her attention toward advocacy work.
In 2016, at age 89, Lee made her way from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to draw attention to Juneteenth, walking 2 ½ miles in several cities to represent the 2 ½ years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston.
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Her campaign worked. In 2021, then-President Joe Biden, with Lee at his side, signed into law a bill declaring Juneteenth a national holiday.
Lee has continued to walk on Juneteenth as her health allows. Since her first walk, similar marches have popped up around the world, including New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Some compared Lee to civil rights figures Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and said her vision has shaped Fort Worth and the country.
The National Juneteenth Museum, which is tentatively expected to open in 2029, will be the culmination of Lee’s campaign to raise awareness of the holiday, long beloved in the Black community. Lee grew up celebrating the holiday picnicking and dancing with her family in Fort Worth’s Sycamore Park.
On Wednesday, the museum picked up a $3 million donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Southwest area, which also donated 38,000 pounds of food to the region. With that donation, the museum has raised $55 million of its $70 million goal.
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State Sen. Taylor Rehmet, a Fort Worth Democrat, said the museum will draw Texans and Americans to the city to learn American history. Once open, the museum is expected to house a family search center, the largest repository in the world of African American family records.
“Generations of Americans will come to this block to encounter the whole story,” Rehmet told those gathered. “There is nothing unpatriotic about telling the truth about America. Real patriotism is believing that this country is strong enough to face its history.”
Renée Toliver, a North Texas federal judge and Lee’s granddaughter, said she recalled her grandmother organizing parades, festivals and community events on Fort Worth’s historic south side, not far from the site of the museum.
“You taught us to make ourselves a committee of one,” Toliver said, echoing one of Lee’s famous lines. “To keep our stories alive. You always said that freedom is for everyone.”
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Related: Hepola: Grandmother of Juneteenth Opal Lee is not giving up on America