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Celebrate Juneteenth with FWISD Alumna, Retired Educator Opal Lee
Published June 13, 2022
Make plans to join Opal Lee, Fort Worth ISD alumna, former educator and 2019 Wall of Fame recipient, this weekend celebrating Juneteenth.
Festivities include the 2.5 mile Opal's Walk for Freedom, the I Am Juneteenth Festival and more. Visit www.juneteenthftw.com for additional details.
This year marks the first anniversary of President Joseph Biden signing legislation to officially recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Ms. Lee, affectionately known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” has advocated for several decades to see that the day is recognized federally.
Juneteenth, observed June 19, commemorates the day the last Southern enslaved Black people were officially emancipated in Texas. On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordan Granger arrived on the shores of Galveston with news that the Civil War had ended, and that enslaved people were free. The order was announced more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, declaring an end to slavery throughout the United States.