Today: “Opal Lee’s dream has become reality.
The 94-year-old activist known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth” has pushed for years for June 19 to become a national holiday, which included walking 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., at 90 years old in 2016 to bring awareness of America’s other independence day.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed a bill that makes Juneteenth a federal holiday after it was passed unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday and by a vote of 415-14 in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. Lee was present for the historical moment.
“Juneteenth marks both a long, hard night of slavery and subjugation and the promise of a brighter morning to come,” Biden said during a signing ceremony at the White House. “This is a day, in my view, of profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”
Lee shook hands with President Biden and tweeted about seeing her lifelong mission come to life.”