Fort Worth’s Opal Lee joins President Biden as he makes Juneteenth a national holiday

President Joe Biden signed a bill Thursday making Juneteenth a federal holiday, delivering a victory to civil rights activists like Opal Lee of Fort Worth.

The 94-year-old Lee began a campaign in 2016 to have the holiday recognized at the national level. Lee walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington to bring awareness to the celebration and initiated an online petition in hopes of gaining support from Congress to officially name Juneteenth a national holiday.

Now, five years after she launched her campaign and decades since she’s been an advocate for the celebration, Juneteenth has become the first federal holiday signed into law since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

“You’re going to see me dancing in the street,” Lee said during a Wednesday presentation at Harvard University. “I’m so happy I don’t know what to do.”

Lee was present at the White House on Thursday during the bill signing, where she was given an ovation and stood by the president and members of Congress as the bill became law. President Biden said Lee was an incredible woman and what he called a single-minded goal to have Juneteenth become a federal holiday.

“She’s made it her mission to see that this day came,” he said. “She’s walked for miles and miles, literally and figuratively, to bring attention to Juneteenth, to make this day possible.”

Juneteenth celebrates the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in Texas, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Juneteenth celebration, which originated in Galveston as early as 1866, has brought families and communities together for decades to celebrate freedom and educate people about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans.

Campaigns to bring national recognition to Juneteenth have been ongoing for several years, and Texas lawmakers, including Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, have pushed Juneteeth legislation in Congress in the past.

Cornyn and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz co-sponsored the recent Senate bill.



Cornyn said there’s no better time than the present to recognize the history associated with the holiday in order to make progress with issues such as the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

“Acknowledging and learning from the mistakes of the past is critical to making that progress and becoming a more perfect union,” he said during a press conference.

Jackson Lee sponsored the House bill and 12 Texas representatives co-sponsored, including U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.

Veasey said this milestone would not be possible without Opal Lee’s work.

“Now, we must build on this important step forward — and Ms. Lee’s work — by recommitting ourselves to the ongoing work of guaranteeing liberty and equal rights for all Americans,” he said in a press release.

Lee will continue with her now-annual Juneteenth walk on Saturday morning, when she will walk 2.5 miles beginning at Evans Avenue Plaza in the historic Southside and ending at the Tarrant County Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth. The 2.5 miles symbolize the two and a half years it took for slaves in Texas to realize they had been freed.

Because June 19 will fall on a Saturday, the federal government will observe the holiday on Friday with the closure of most government offices.

At the bill signing, President Biden said despite this progress, the fight for equality continues by combating racial discrimination and inequity.

“It’s simply not enough just to commemorate Juneteenth,” he said. “After all, the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn’t mark the end of America’s work to deliver on the promise of equality. It only marked the beginning. To honor the true meaning of Juneteeth, we have to continue towards that promise, because we have not gotten there yet.”

Before landing on Biden’s desk, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act bill passed unanimously through the Senate and passed through the House in a 415-14 vote. The “no” votes included Reps. Chip Roy and Ronny Jackson of Texas.