‘Grandmother Of Juneteenth’ Opal Lee Finally Getting Justice After Home Destroyed By Angry Mob

FORT WORTH, TX – It looks like Opal Lee is finally getting the justice her family deserves…too bad it only took 80 years to happen. The 97-year-old woman, also known to many as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” was gifted land owned by her family before a racist mob destroyed their home and forced them to leave.

On June 19, 1939, just four days after Lee’s family moved into their Fort Worth, Texas home, a racist crowd of 500 people showed up at their door, destroyed their home, and burned their personal possessions. In fear for their lives, the then-12-year-old Lee and her family fled the home they thought would give them a fresh start.

“It was going to be the nicest place we had in Fort Worth. We were so proud of it,” Lee told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA. “We were frightened to death when our parents sent us away from the house. To come back later to see it in shambles, that was traumatic.”

When she discovered Habitat for Humanity owned the vacant lot where her family home once stood, Lee reached out to see if she could buy it. But rather than make her pay for what was rightfully hers, the organization decided to give Lee the land and build her a new home with the help of community donations and volunteer labor. They sold the land to her for $10 to make the transaction legal.

“I could have done a holy dance, I tell you,” Lee said. “That was really…oh boy!”

“It should be hers, and there should be something good to come out of something terrible all those years ago,” said Gage Yager, CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity.

Lee made news in 2016 when, at 89 years old, she walked over 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., in an effort to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. President Joe Biden finally signed a resolution making the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States a holiday in 2021. Lee’s efforts earned her a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Although nothing will take away the pain of that devastating incident, Yager hopes the new home gives Lee something to celebrate.

“It’s both an amazing and terrible story, and hopefully, as she says, it comes full circle,” Yager said. “We’ll build a home, laugh, cry, and move her in. And we’ll celebrate the moment when that happens.”

When Texas Capital and Texas-based HistoryMaker Homes found out the house was for Lee, they made it a team effort to do it for her, free of charge.

“Her legacy won’t be [just] Juneteenth, but a collaboration, and when you show love for one another, and you have a heart for others, it comes back what, three-fold,” Effie Dennison with Texas Capital said.

Texas Capital Foundation has funded the cost of all the new furnishings for the home and will also provide volunteers for the wall-raising. HistoryMaker Homes has been working with Lee to pick all the interior designs, and they are absorbing the cost to build it.

Ironically, the house is going to be just a few blocks down from where the National Juneteenth Museum is set to open in 2025. Lee and her team have already raised more than $30M for the project of, the $70M they need. The team working on the home hopes to have it done as soon as possible.

Lee has accomplished so much in her 97 years, but she still said she isn’t done.

“There is so much work to be done. You can’t rest on your laurels, but I am so thankful to God that he has allowed me to do the things that have brought me to this point,” Lee said.

This article first appeared in The Root.

Feature image credit: Alejandra Martinez/KERA News