Fort Worth activist Opal Lee honored with live performance during school board meeting

Fort Worth civil rights activist Opal Lee was recognized by the Fort Worth school board on Tuesday for her work as a community leader and her successful campaign to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

The 94-year-old Lee joined President Joe Biden last month as he signed a bill designating June 19 as a federal holiday. Last week, Lee joined the Texas Senate to be recognized for her Juneteenth campaign, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said her portrait should be hanging in the Senate chamber.

Lee had advocated for decades to see national recognition for the holiday, which commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of General Order No. 3 that declared the freedom of slaves in Texas. The announcement came nearly two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In 2016, Lee walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington to highlight her campaign and is largely considered the “grandmother of Juneteenth.”

She’s also a retired Fort Worth ISD teacher and counselor and a local advocate for education and civil rights in the city. Lee helped found the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society and helped organize Fort Worth’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month celebrations.

Lee was honored with a certificate of recognition and a performance by Sheran Goodspeed Keyton, a Fort Worth Opera singer. Keyton sang “Stand Up,” an original song from “Harriet,” a 2019 biographical film based on the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Keyton received a standing ovation from board members and the attendees, and was praised by Lee.



“I just thought I’d come up here and get a plaque and go home,” she said. “But that was, as young people say, off the chain.”



Lee recalled the excitement she felt when she heard the news that Congress passed the Juneteenth bill, and said there is still work to be done to educate children about the holiday, create a more united community and teach people to love each other.



“You can change people’s minds,” she said. “It won’t be easy, because I’ve tried it, but it can be done.”