Juneteenth activist Opal Lee receives Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House

Opal Lee, the 97-year-old “grandmother of Juneteenth,” received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Friday.

President Joe Biden named Lee as one of 19 recipients of the award, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better,” a White House news release said. “They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.”

Lee, who moved to Fort Worth when she was 10, symbolically walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of Juneteenth. She attended the signing ceremony at the White House in 2021 when Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Lee was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. On March 21, work began on building a new home for Lee on the exact spot in the Historic Southside neighborhood where a racist white mob trashed her family’s home more than 80 years ago.

“Growing up in a home that was burned down by a racist mob, she understood that history must never be erased,” a speaker said as Lee was being awarded Friday.

Lee said when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize that she believes her mission to serve is not done yet.

“You got to help people if you can,” she said. “And I can. I still can.”

“Juneteenth is a day of profound weight and power to remember the original sin of slavery and the extraordinary capacity to merge the most painful moments with a better vision of ourselves,” said Biden at Friday’s ceremony. “Ms. Opal Lee made it her mission to make history, not erase it. And we’re a better nation because of you, Opal.”

“The nation thanks Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth,” a White House speaker said.

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