‘COVID-19, you will not stop Juneteenth’: Fort Worth organizers to have first event Friday
Civil rights activist Opal Lee, 93, will walk 2.5 miles from the Fort Worth Convention Center to the Will Rogers Coliseum on June 19 to symbolize the 2.5 years it took for slaves in Texas to know they were freed.
The event was announced Monday at the Lenora Rolla Heritage Center Museum. The walk and other scheduled events are part of the Annual Juneteenth Fort Worth Celebration. The event will also be live-streamed.
Juneteenth celebrates the arrival of Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger of the Union in Galveston on June 19, 1865, with the news that the Civil War was over and slaves had been freed. The message came 2.5 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves.
Over 40 states recognize the day as a state holiday, but it is not yet a national holiday.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused this year’s celebration to change, said Dione Sims, executive director of the nonprofit Unity Unlimited, which hosted Monday’s announcement of the Juneteenth events. Instead of a big celebration that was planned, organizers scaled back events, but knew a celebration had to happen.
“COVID-19, you will not stop Juneteenth,” Sims said alongside those at the Monday event.
Lee, a civil rights activist and retired teacher, has advocated for Juneteenth to be recognized as a national holiday for years. In 2016, she walked from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to advocate for Juneteenth to be recognized nationally.
“I know, eventually, within my lifetime, or yours, we’re going to have Juneteenth as a national holiday,” she said at Monday’s event.
Lee also wants supporters to sign a petition to show elected officials that she is not alone in her goal of making Juneteenth a national day of observance.
She describes Juneteenth as a unifier. She invites people of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to participate.
Tarrant County commissioner Roy Brooks spoke at the event and touched on the protests happening around the country. Brook said he supports those calling out injustice in the community.
“I stand with those who cry out for better relations between black citizens and the police across this nation,” he said.
Black America will not go away, Brooks said. It will always go and try to get its portion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This year’s Juneteenth, Brooks wants people to unite, that way it will make the day mean much more.
Lee wants people to go to the polls to make change happen.
“We can keep America from burning,” she said. “George Floyd said, ‘I can’t breathe’ and America can no longer breathe.”
Juneteenth Fort Worth events
9:30 a.m. Friday: Breakfast of Prayer/Ecumenical Service at Broadway Baptist Church.
8:30 a.m. June 19: Opal’s Walk 2 DC Caravan. Staging at Fort Worth Convention Center.
7:30 p.m. June 20: Juneteenth the Stage Play live stream.
Two virtual events, Empowering You and Entertainment Concert, are still to be determined.
More information about the events and how to participate can be found juneteenthftw.com.