EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of Juneteenth, Decider is resurfacing an article that was originally published in June of 2021 with Ms. Opal Lee, a social activist known as “the Grandmother of Juneteenth.” Ms. Lee, now 98 years young, ultimately achieved her goal when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021. We hope you enjoy this interview.
In a time of social reckoning from sea to shining sea that has not been seen in decades, one of the most important days in our country’s history, June 19th, is being viewed in a widening spotlight. That day, back in 1865, marked the end of slavery in the state of Texas. You’ll recall that the Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery throughout the United States in 1862, but enforcement was incredibly slow in Texas, one of the distant slave outposts in our country. This remarkable, and long overdue, moment in American history was celebrated far and wide that day.
Of course, this being America, anything that resembles Black progress can be diminished or outright erased over time. Juneteenth hadn’t fell out of favor so much as it was almost forgotten, and certainly never taught in schools or observed by our public institutions. From the latter half of the 20th century to the present day, the movement to declare the day itself as a national holiday has grown ever so slowly, yet recent events have provided greater awareness and increased momentum towards the goal.
While many media companies have created programming in celebration and observance of this day, FOX SOUL has the honor of hosting a special event involving a woman known as “the Grandmother of Juneteenth.” Just a few years ago in Fort Worth, Texas, an activist and long-retired educator named Ms. Opal Lee put on some tennis shoes and began walking. And she kept walking for 2.5 miles per day from Fort Worth to Washington DC, to talk about Juneteenth to anyone that would listen and potentially join the cause.
Did we mention she’s 94 years young?
This year, Ms. Opal’s walk along with the steps of thousands of people across the nation will be broadcasted live on FOX SOUL as the African American-themed channel will feature a range of programming that not only highlights Juneteenth, but promotes empowerment, education, and unity across the land. Opal’s Walk Live begins at 11am EST / 10am CST on Saturday, June 19.
Decider spoke with Ms. Opal about her mission, the collaboration with FOX SOUL, how President Joe Biden’s recent acknowledgment of the Tulsa race massacre gives hope to the greater acceptance of Juneteenth, and much more.

DECIDER: So for the unfamiliar, what exactly is Juneteenth?
MS. OPAL LEE: Juneteenth is the commemoration of the enslaved in Texas, finding out that they were free two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, I don’t want you to think that they didn’t know, but it hadn’t been enforced. And when General Gordon Granger led about 7,000 Colored troops and made his way to Galveston and they spread it out, trying to tell people. Then he nailed that on the door of what is now Reedy Chapel AME [African Methodist Episcopal] Church. When the enslaved came in from work and somebody read that to them, they started celebrating and we’ve been celebrating ever since.
The recognition of the holiday has grown over the years, yet there’s still this fight to make it a nationally recognized holiday. Why do you think it’s taken so long to reach this level of recognition, let alone move further towards a formalized holiday?
Well, from my perspective, we celebrated it, and then we didn’t celebrate. Then we hit the floor until the Civil Rights Movement, and with all these things, Juneteenth waxed and waned. And now that some 47, 48 states celebrated and they celebrated in Mexico and around the world, there’s been a resurgence. And I’m wanting to take part in that and have Juneteenth declared a national holiday.
I belong to a group called NJOF, the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, that was started by the late Reverend Dr. Ronald Myers. And so we are on the cusp of having Juneteenth declared a national holiday. We took 1,500,000 signatures to Congress in September, just so it’s not just one little lady in tennis shoes wanting a national holiday [chuckles].
Speaking of those tennis shoes, in terms of the actual walk, you started this just a few years ago at 90 years old! There are so many ways to build awareness for causes, so why the walk? Plenty of people would rather not walk half a block to get groceries, but you decided to walk 2.5 miles a day in multiple states.
Well, you know, people have different skills. I had an opera singer that was part of my breakfast of prayer, she was off the chain. There are other people who are artists, but I ain’t got nothing going for me but walking and talking. And so I decided, hey, if I start walking from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, DC, somebody is going to take notice and they did. Lots of people, that has been phenomenal. And to know that celebration is held in 47, 48 states, that is ‘off the chain’ as the young people would say.

As most public affairs in the last year, this looks to be a much larger ordeal in comparison. Could you explain how different the event will be?
Last year, because of the virus [COVID-19], We just had a caravan and I walked it two and a half miles from Downtown Fort Worth to the Will Rogers complex. I thought I had 10-15 cars follow me when actually I had three hundred cars. And this year, we’re gonna do it nationally. If we start off at 10:00 in Fort Worth, Los Angeles will start off at 8:00, Atlanta at 11:00, and then Philadelphia at 11:00. The whole nation will know what we’re doing.
This event will be just a couple of weeks after Joe Biden became the first sitting president to visit Tulsa, Oklahoma in a century to formally recognize – and call out – the Tulsa race massacre that destroyed the Greenwood section of the city and Black Wall Street. Having grown up in neighboring Texas, what do you think about the event in Tulsa, and did it give you a little more hope for the recognition of Juneteenth going forward?
I do understand and I’m grateful for what went on in Greenwood. But there’s other Greenwoods, and we wanted people to understand that what happened in Texas was because we were the last outpost, we don’t want people to think it’s a Texas thing or a Black thing. It’s not. None of us are free until we’re all free and we are not free yet.
People need to know that there are disparities that we need to be addressing. And not the people just in Texas, but everybody. We’ve got to address homelessness and people have a decent place to work. We’ve got to address joblessness and by being paid the same thing that you paid for the same job, or somebody else is paid differently. We need to address the health crisis, oh that is so important. And climate change, if we don’t listen to our scientists, and know that we’re responsible for climate change, and that we can do something about it. So help me, I believe we’re gonna all be annihilated at the same time.
We just want to be on the same page, people need to know that none of us are free until we’re all free. And we aren’t free yet with these disparities staring us in the face.
Unfortunately, you’re not wrong. You know, most people think of this past year as sort of reckoning with all the issues you brought up.
Many of these battles were waged long before there were cameras to the injustices. Because of the coronavirus, the American public could not hide from the tragedies that befell George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others.
Is it fair to say that this reckoning with social justice has given new life to this campaign? Or do you feel as if “nope, we activists are just trudging along, doing what we’ve always done and wonder why you guys are late to the party?”
I think it has. It’s made people awake to what’s happening and folks saying enough is enough. We’ve been through periods when we were freed, then enslaved, and we’ve been through them. Losing Dr. King because of what he stood for, losing Malcolm X because he stood for all of us. And we wax and wane but I really believe that there’s a reckoning. We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to make people aware that that is not the way to go. That our differences can be resolved, and we can resolve them together. And we can get on a path that makes this the best country in the whole wide world.
Have you seen any observation of Juneteenth on the day itself outside of Texas? If so, which ones stood out the most?
Yes! I think it was Kansas, where they have the big Juneteenth. I walked around the county courthouse on my two-and-a-half-hour walk. Those people are like no other set of folk, and in Philadelphia, what they do with Juneteenth is off the chain, do you hear me? I’ve been to New York, but they tell me New York Juneteenth is to die for!
So I know teams are gaining momentum, you know? And I visualize them, and have I not said that we should celebrate from the 19th of June to the Fourth of July? That would be celebrating freedom, huh? Because we weren’t free on the Fourth of July, 1776. I visualize the thing, blossoming.
Do you know anything about Six Flags Over Texas, Over Georgia or other places, all the components they have?
That’s what I’ve visualized with Juneteenth all over the United States. That there will be segments that tell about the past, segments tell about now, and segments that tell about the future. Whew, I just see Juneteenth being off the chain!
Finally, some elected officials in different states around the country, including your native Texas, are pushing back against the brilliant 1619 Project and losing their minds over Critical Race Theory. What do you think about what amounts to extreme attempts at minimizing the impact of slavery?
I think that we have had all these kinds of things before and then it’s going to be defeated. I’ve got no qualms about it. We have been through this before; it’s like a trial by fire. We go through it, it dies, it starts all over again, it does. We know what’s coming, so we know that we need to combat it. Use all our stress, our force, our young people need to be told. Everybody needs the truth. How about that the truth will set you free. My point is, if we know, then we don’t have to repeat it.
Opal’s Walk Live, which takes place on June 19 starting at 11am EST/10am CST, will be livestreamed exclusively via the FOX SOUL streaming platform, which can be found at YouTube.com/FOXSOUL and FOXSOUL.TV, as well as on Roku Samsung
TV Plus, Tubi and more.
This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Jason Clinkscales is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Whole Game, and his work has been featured at Awful Announcing, The Week and Dime Magazine. A New York City native, he is also a former media research analyst in both television networks and advertising agencies.