Opal Lee reflected on the historic moment in an interview with ABC News.
Opal Lee speaks with ABC News on March 21, 2024, following a wall raising ceremony for her new home in Fort Worth, Texas.Opal Lee was only 12 years old when a racist white mob stormed and set fire to her home on 940 East Annie Street in Fort Worth, Texas. The violence raged on June 19, 1939 -- the date now known as “Juneteenth,” the annual holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.
“Those people tore the house asunder. They drove the furniture out and burned it. They did despicable things,” she said.Lee, who is known as the “grandmother of the movement,” became a lifelong activist for social justice and now, nearly 85 years later, the 97-year-old matriarch found herself back on 940 East Annie, where a large group of people gathered again.
Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, participates in a wall raising ceremony for her new home in Fort Worth, Texas on March 21, 2024.“Today, Oh, it was groundbreaking,” Lee said, after taking part in the wall-raising ceremony organized by Habitat for Humanity.
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