Fort Worth activist Opal Lee, known for her work in getting Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday.
The White House announced Friday that Lee is one of 19 recipients of this year's award, along with civil rights activist Clarence B. Jones and the late Medgar Evers. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor and recognizes “individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, security, and world peace of the United States, or to other important social, public, or personal endeavors. It is said that the award will be given to White House news release.
Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” is being recognized for her years of work to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
Eight years ago, at age 86, she began walking from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, D.C. After Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, black people in Texas walked 2.5 miles every day for two and a half years. her 1863 before the message arrived in Galveston in her 1865.
More than 150 years later, in 2021, President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery after the Civil War, a federal holiday. Lee, now 97, has led a Juneteenth walk every year since then and is the driving force behind the planned National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.
Biden presented the award at a ceremony at the White House on Friday afternoon.
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