Civil rights leader Opal Lee calls on President Trump to honor MLK’s example of unity
President Donald Trump’s inauguration coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Fort Worth’s “grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee took advantage of the occasion to call on the incoming chief executive to live up to the civil rights leader’s legacy.
In an open letter to Trump, Lee asked, “will you rise to the occasion or will you stand still as history passes you by?”
In 2016, at age 89, Lee walked from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., as part of her goal of making Juneteenth a national holiday. Outgoing President Joe Biden made it a holiday in 2021.
“As a life-long educator, I know that what we teach today shapes tomorrow,” Lee wrote in the letter to Trump. “So if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love.”
Being a leader means more than enacting policy, Lee wrote. It means leading by example.
“Division is the easy choice. Unity is the courageous one,” she wrote. “It takes leaders like you to choose that path, even if it’s hard.
“You have the power to teach us all what is possible when service replaces spectacle and humanity takes center stage. Let your legacy be one that lifts us, not one that weighs us down.
“The road to true freedom is long, but I’ve walked it my whole life. Will you walk with me? Name the time and place, and I’ll meet you there.”
Reached by phone, Lee said she hoped the letter would start a dialogue and close relationship with the 45th and 47th president.
“I had a good relationship with several of the other presidents,” she said. “I thought I needed to get to know him.”
While she doesn’t have the “slightest idea” if Trump will respond to her letter, Lee was hopeful she would hear “something positive” from him.
“Looking forward to hearing from him,” she said.
Trump’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In June, Lee moved into a brand new home on the same plot of land where a white mob ransacked her family home and burned their belongings 85 years before.
When asked how she was doing in her new house, she said, “Fabulous. … Everything in place, even food in the refrigerator. I’m a happy camper.”
Now 98, Lee had a hopeful message for the new year: “I am hoping that this is a brand new year, and that we will work together to get rid of some of the disparities we have.”
