Opal Lee’s fight for Juneteenth lives on in her annual Walk for Freedom
Fort Worth civil rights icon Opal Lee’s spirit was as lively as ever on Thursday, June 18, during a press conference and panel discussion celebrating her life and legacy ahead of her Juneteenth Walk For Freedom.
“I’m Opal Lee, everybody’s grandma,” Lee said as she introduced the discussion, evoking laughter and cheers from the audience as she joked that even at her age of 99, she has plenty to learn from younger folks.
“I don’t think I know everything, and teach me, if you will,” Lee said. “I’d appreciate it, and we’ll be seeing each other.”
Lee, a Fort Worth native, will return to lead the annual Opal Lee Juneteenth Walk For Freedom on Friday, June 19, in Fort Worth.
The walk is a tradition that began in Fort Worth in 2015 as a way to lobby for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday. Now that the day is a federally recognized holiday, the walk has come to represent a place to spread awareness about what Juneteenth represents.
According to Lee’s great-granddaughter, Robin Sims, the holiday is about making sure history is remembered and not repeated.
“Our history, this history, her history matters,” Sims said during the panel discussion. “We want to keep Juneteenth at the forefront, because if we don’t, we’ll be repeating things that they’re trying to make happen already, as we see again, and we don’t have time for that.”
Isaac Keys, an actor, activist, and former NFL linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, and Green Bay Packers, agreed, and said that he wasn’t taught about Lee’s story in school growing up in St. Louis.
“I am a victim of being one of those students where my African-American history was not always taught to me. What she did, the activism, the thing that she did behind the cameras, behind the scenes, was not taught to me,” Keys said. “I had to go seek the knowledge, because not being taught to me is no longer an excuse.”
When Lee was 89, she symbolically walked 1,400 miles from Texas to Washington, D.C., to show the importance of Juneteenth. She walked 2.5 miles each day because it took 2.5 years for the news of emancipation to reach slaves in Texas.
The Opal Lee Walk for Freedom in Fort Worth is 2.5 miles for the same reason.
In 2021, when former president Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday, Lee was in attendance.
Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles, who represents District 8, said during the panel that the walk would encourage difficult conversations about the role of law enforcement.
“Juneteenth is one of those days that we’re going to have a heavy police presence,” Nettles said. “They’re going to keep us safe, they’re going to be marching with us, they’re going to be walking with us. Those are times that we can have these types of candid conversations.”
When the panel was taking questions from the public, a resident asked Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia if there are plans to fund programs to help reduce gun violence in Fort Worth.
“I feel like words without actions is really not progressing us forward,” the woman said. “With Juneteenth being about the liberation and collectiveness and bringing the community together, I just want to know, are there going to be more funding to go into programs that are preventative services that actually may help us reduce gun violence?”
Garcia responded by saying that there is a specific process for evaluating these programs.
“We’re going to start looking at programs through a criminological lens to ensure that the programs that we are funding, that they’re evidence-based, and they’re backed by science with regards to their effectiveness,” Garcia said.
The moderator of the panel discussion, police officer Tracy Carter, did not allow any more discussion on the matter, saying that the panel was about “honoring Miss Opal Lee.”
The walk for freedom will take place at 9 a.m June 19 at Will Rogers Square, 3401 West Lancaster Ave.
