If you have ever blown out the candles on a milestone birthday and wondered where the years went, you are in good company.
“Wow, gee whiz, a hundred years,” Opal Lee told NBC 5 anchor Brittney Johnson before her big day. “They passed pretty fast, I think.”
Lee turned 100 on October 7 in Fort Worth, Texas. She spent the morning at a ceremony that began clearing the site for the National Juneteenth Museum, the project that has been her focus.
In case you need a refresher, Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865. That was the day Union soldiers reached Galveston with an order declaring the enslaved people of Texas free. It came about two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Lee earned her nickname, the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” campaigning to make the day a federal holiday, and in 2021 it became one.
What Does a Hundred Feel Like?
In that conversation, Lee spent little time on honors and headlines. She talked about family instead.
She remembered her children when they were young. “How cuddly they were, how beautiful they were, and I loved them so much. I think I spoil them,” she said.
She remembered her late husband, too, and the way he came courting.
“He was spit and polish, you know. Everything had to be just so until he met me. Poor soul,” she joked.
These days, her granddaughter Promise Roland serves as her legacy manager and caregiver. Roland said she thinks she was 42 or 43 before she ever saw her grandmother lie down in her bed.
Life is quieter now. Lee enjoys reading, time with family, getting her nails done and breakfast with her great-grandson. Roland says her grandmother mostly wants a good book, maybe a little Blue Bloods, and some rest.
Asked about all the fuss over her birthday, Lee smiled. “Don’t figure I’ll make another hundred, but this one’s been pretty good,” she said.
Why 2.5 Miles?
Lee worked for decades in Fort Worth as a teacher, a counselor and a community activist. She has said she cherishes childhood memories of Juneteenth celebrations with food, music and games. As an adult, she helped plan the city’s own celebration.
In 2016, she hosted a series of 2.5-mile walks in cities along the way from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C. She was 89 at the time. The 2.5 miles stood for the 2.5 years between the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the day the news reached Galveston.
“I decided that the rest of the cotton-picking country needed to know about Juneteenth too,” she said.
The walks kept going. Opal Lee’s Walk for Freedom started in Fort Worth and now includes walks in cities such as Honolulu, Los Angeles and outside Chicago. Another granddaughter, Dione Simms, has said the goal is a walk in all 50 states by 2030.
What Comes Next for the Museum?
An old community center stood on the museum lot, and it is coming down to make room. Its services are moving to the Hazel Harvey Peace Center for Neighborhoods. And 40,000 pounds of food were set to go to Fort Worth food pantries.
The 50,000-square-foot museum will sit in a historically Black neighborhood and is projected to open in 2029. Plans include galleries, a 250-seat theater, a business incubator and a food hall with local chefs and vendors.
The road here has been long. Organizers first expected to break ground in early 2023, and the start date moved several times. The goal is to raise $70 million before breaking ground, and more than $50 million has come in.
Jarred Howard, the museum’s CEO, said it mattered to hold the event on her birthday. Everything the museum has done and continues to do, he said, is built around her spirit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee H. Toliver, who spoke at the event, put it this way. “You always reminded us that history is not something you leave behind; it’s something you actively protect,” she said.
Lee says there is plenty left to do. “There’s so much else that needs to be done. So much,” she said. She also says it is time for others to take the baton.
Her walks covered 2.5 miles at a time. A baton gets carried the same way: one short stretch and then the next. The stretch in front of you is a fine place to start.
