On Oct. 7 demolition began on the future site of the museum

For Dr. Opal Lee, the road to Juneteenth recognition has been measured in miles.

For years, the Fort Worth educator and activist walked more than two and a half miles at a time, often in cities across the country, carrying a simple message about freedom and the long-delayed news that reached enslaved Texans in 1865.

On Oct. 7, the woman widely known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” celebrated another milestone: her 100th birthday.

And on the same day, work began on a project that could become one of her most lasting legacies. Friends, Fort Worth leaders and community members gathered near the Southside Community Center to celebrate Lee’s birthday as demolition began at the site that will become the National Juneteenth Museum.

The $70 million museum is expected to open in 2027 and will honor the history Lee spent decades bringing to the national stage.

The Story Of Opal Lee

Lee was a child in Marshall, Texas, when she experienced her first Juneteenth celebration. She remembers the occasion as a full community event, with music, food, speeches and ball games at the fairgrounds.

“It was just like Christmas,” Lee told Local Profile in 2022.

When her family moved to Fort Worth when she was about 10, Juneteenth celebrations looked different. The backyard gatherings she encountered in her new hometown could not quite compete with the festivities she remembered from Marshall. Still, the meaning of June 19 stayed with her.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston and announced that enslaved people in Texas were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

For Lee, Juneteenth has always been about freedom, but her vision for the holiday reaches beyond a single date. She has advocated for celebrations stretching from June 19 through July 4, noting that freedom was not fully realized on either date for everyone.

“We’re not talking about a Black thing or a Texas thing,” said Lee. “We are talking about freedom for everybody. And we’re not free yet. We’ve got too many disparities — absolutely too many to say that we are free.”

From A Local Tradition To A National Holiday

Lee eventually became one of the most recognizable faces in the push to make Juneteenth a national observance. She credits the late Dr. Ronald “Doc” Myers, a Mississippi family physician and civil rights activist, with starting the campaign. Before his death in 2018, Myers helped establish Juneteenth as a state holiday or observance in 42 states.

Lee took the campaign to another level. She helped collect 1.5 million signatures supporting national recognition and traveled across the country for years, walking more than two and a half miles during events to symbolize the two and a half years it took for news of emancipation to reach enslaved Texans.

Celebrity partnerships helped bring additional attention to the effort, but Lee’s persistence became one of the campaign’s defining features.

On June 18, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the legislation establishing Juneteenth as the 11th national day of observance. Lee and her granddaughter, Dione Sims, were there for the proclamation.

“It was magnificent — it was wonderful,” Lee told Local Profile. “I have thought about it so many times, and I have pinched myself to be sure it actually happened.”

In 2023, Lee was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall Of Fame. In 2024, Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden.

The Museum Takes Shape In Fort Worth

Lee’s 100th birthday arrives as the National Juneteenth Museum moves toward construction. The museum will replace the now-dormant Southside Community Center and is planned to span 50,000 square feet. Its design will include 10,000-square-foot galleries, a 250-seat theater, a business incubator and a food hall.

The project has received backing from the city of Fort Worth along with more than $11 million in investments from the state of Texas.

At the Oct. 7 celebration, Elder Michael A. Dunn, president of the United States Southwest Area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presented a $3 million check toward the museum.

As she reached a century of life, the site of a future museum dedicated to the holiday she helped bring to the national conversation began its transformation. When it opens, visitors will find a place dedicated not only to the events of June 19, 1865, but to the broader story of freedom, community and the people who kept that history alive.

Now, a century into her own story, Fort Worth is building a permanent place to tell it.

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