Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” was hospitalized last month while visiting Ohio to mark the 30th anniversary of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, her family confirmed Sunday to The Dallas Morning News.
It was not immediately clear why Lee, 98, was hospitalized, however she is now recovering from her hospital stay and looking forward to returning home to Texas, according to a news release from local nonprofit Unity Unlimited Inc., run by her granddaughter.
Lee is known to be one of the most vocal advocates for the Juneteenth holiday’s national recognition. The holiday celebrates the end of slavery in Texas and is long recognized as the official end of slavery in the United States.
It also marks the day Union troops arrived in Galveston and informed enslaved people they were free.
Here’s what to know about Lee, also known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth.
Native to Texas
Lee was born in 1926, in Marshall – a small city in East Texas – making her a Texas native, though her family has origins in Cotton Valley, La. Her family moved to Fort Worth when she was just 10 years old.
When Lee was 12, her family’s Fort Worth home on Annie Street was vandalized and burned down by a racist mob in 1939.
“Those people tore that place asunder,” Lee recalled at a Southern Methodist University event last year. “They pulled the furniture out. They burned it. They did despicable things. But our parents never ever discussed it with us.”
Recently, Lee received the opportunity to reclaim her family’s lot on Annie Street, with a new home built on the same lot her father once owned.
In 2024, Lee and a team of community raised the first wall on her new home on Annie Street in Fort Worth. Texas Capital Bank, Trinity Habitat for Humanity and HistoryMaker Homes partnered to rebuild the home at no cost to her.
A mother, student and teacher
Lee, now a matriarch of five generations, graduated high school at 16. She married after graduation and had four children.
Lee decided after “four years and four babies” that she wanted to go to college. She became a student at Wiley College and juggled her responsibilities of school, work and raising her children.
Three and a half years later, Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and took a job teaching in Fort Worth. Lee also holds a master’s degree in counseling and guidance. She is now retired after working as a longtime educator and counselor.
Civil rights, Juneteenth advocacy
Juneteenth had been a state holiday in Texas for roughly four decades. It has been long celebrated and recognized by Black communities, including in East Texas, where Lee is from.
Lee began advocating for federal recognition of Juneteenth when she was 86 years old. It took nearly 10 years before Lee’s mission was accomplished, and in 2021, after years of advocacy, former President Joe Biden signed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
In 2016, she drew national attention when the then-89-year-old traveled from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., walking 2.5 miles in several cities along the way — a more than 1,400-mile route — as part of the effort.
Lee often leads the annual walk in Fort Worth, though last year’s walk was held in Dallas. The 2.5-mile walk symbolizes the 2.5 years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach enslaved people in Galveston.
“Juneteenth is about freedom for all of us—not just Texans, not just Black people, but everybody,” Lee said in the release. “And this year, I especially want to see more young people getting involved on Juneteenth. It’s up to the young folks to keep that freedom moving forward.”