Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, and one woman who helped make this happen was Ms. Opal Lee.
SAN ANTONIO — This day in 1865, the last slaves in the U.S. found out they were free when Union troops showed up in Galveston.
That was almost two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
This entire week, San Antonio and Bexar County are celebrating the freedom anniversary known as Juneteenth.
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, and one woman who helped make this happen is Ms. Opal Lee.
She’s a mother, a teacher, a philanthropist — and living history as the Grandmother of Juneteenth.
In 2016, she symbolically walked from her home in Fort Worth to the White House to deliver a petition for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday.
President Joe Biden signed it into law in 2021 and awarded Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
Lee is now 98 years old and lives on the same plot of land in South Fort Worth where racist mobs burned her home down in 1939, when she was just 12 years old.
According to the National Museum of American History, Juneteenth marks the start of Civic Season, leading up to the Fourth of July.
San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum CEO Deborah Oluwame says this is a time for all of us to reflect on what it truly means to be free.
“The importance of celebrating both holidays is really in the word ‘community.’ Community is our common unity. If we cannot come together in unity, then that means our problems are still going to persist,” Oluwame said.
There’s now work being done to create a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth. It’s expected to open next year.
For a full list of events in San Antonio happening today through Saturday, go to BexarCountyJuneteenth.com.