{"id":341693,"date":"2026-06-18T19:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341693\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:07:09","slug":"fort-worth-to-honor-life-and-legacy-of-dr-opal-lee-the-grandmother-of-juneteenth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341693\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth to honor life and legacy of Dr. Opal Lee, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth leaders will be celebrating the life and accomplishments of Dr. Opal Lee<\/a>, lovingly known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” on Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Lee, who will turn 100 years old in October, is recognized for her lifelong commitment to unity, freedom, community outreach, and fighting to make Juneteenth a federal holiday<\/a>, which she achieved in 2021. <\/p>\n

She received the\u00a0Presidential Medal of Freedom<\/a>\u00a0in 2024 for her efforts. <\/p>\n

\"Forbes<\/p>\n

File image. Opal Lee attends the 2021 Forbes x Know Your Value 50 Over 50 Summit on December 15, 2021 in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taylor Hill via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The North Texas icon holds a “Walk of Freedom” \u2013 walking two and a half miles every Juneteenth to symbolize the two and a half years it took for enslaved people in Texas to learn they were free, after the Emancipation Proclamation. She missed the 2025<\/a> walk because she was in the hospital. <\/p>\n

But her planned walk kicks off at 9 a.m. Friday at Rogers Square in Fort Worth. <\/p>\n

In January of this year, Lee was honored by Barbie with an Inspiring Woman doll. “Our doll tribute to this visionary wears a signature look for her annual Opal’s Walk for Freedom, including white joggers, sneakers, and a custom T-shirt,” the company said. <\/p>\n

And at a meeting with the State Board of Education in Austin in April, Lee’s granddaughter, Dione Sims, advocated for the inclusion of Lee in Texas’ Juneteenth curriculum. <\/p>\n

“I want to petition for her to be a required person to study Juneteenth,” Sims said. “People that have to do with freedom, liberty, and unity; she’s the embodiment of that. Helping to get Juneteenth as a national holiday, I think deserves to be mentioned.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thursday’s ceremony will honor Lee’s legacy<\/a>, with special guests like Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia and Fire Chief Raymond Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth leaders will be celebrating the life and accomplishments of Dr. Opal Lee, lovingly known as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2919,116,118,117,7218,122,27],"class_list":["post-341693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-civil-rights","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-juneteenth","tag-tarrant-county","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}