Fort Worth’s Opal Lee joins President Biden for Black History Month celebration
Fort Worth civil rights icon Opal Lee was in Washington on Monday afternoon to close out Black History Month with a White House event hosted by President Joe Biden.
The event included members of the Congressional Black Caucus, local and state elected officials and community leaders. Lee was pictured with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“When you get an invitation to celebrate Black History Month with the president, you go,” said Dione Sims, Lee’s granddaughter and publicist.
At the event, the president called on Congress to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson and pass voting rights bills.
The 95-year-old retired teacher and author successfully advocated for June 19, or Juneteenth, to become a federal holiday. In 2016, she walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington to bring awareness to the Juneteenth celebration and started an online petition that received more than 1.6 million signatures.
Juneteenth celebrates the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in Texas, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Juneteenth celebration, which originated in Galveston as early as 1866, has brought families and communities together for decades to celebrate freedom and educate people about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans.
This is the second time Lee has been invited to a Washington event by Biden. Lee was present at the White House in June when Biden signed the bill into law that made the celebration a federal holiday.
Since that day, Lee has received a number of accolades and honors for her advocacy efforts, including being nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize by Congress.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 4:43 PM.
