‘Opal's Walk for Freedom' winds through Fort Worth ends with festival at Farrington Field

On Thursday, June 19, Opal Lee, Unity Unlimited, Inc., NBC 5, and Telemundo 39, celebrated Juneteenth with Opal’s Walk for Freedom.

The walk featured a new, scenic route in Fort Worth that starts at Farrington Field, passes by the Botanic Garden, Dickie’s Arena, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Kimbell Art Museum, the cultural district and Casa Mañana.

Dr. Opal Lee, also known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," was not able to lead the walk this year for health reasons, but she was still the heart and soul of the celebration. Her granddaughter, Dione Sims, picked up the torch and led the walk.

"When I talked to her Monday, she told me, I got it, and we’ve been preparing for this time, a little sooner than we planned," said Sims. "She said you got it. Continue the legacy, because it’s not a 'me thing.' It’s a 'we thing.'"

Texas Sky Ranger showed a crowd of people making their way through Fort Worth.

"It just shows me that the power is not in the image. It’s in the mission. It’s not in the fact that my grandmother had a movement, but that the movement continues. And people recognize that even though she’s not here, what she stood for and what we’ve worked for still resonates with people," said Sims.

The walk started at Farrington Field and ended there, where a festival took place on the field.

WHAT IS A 'OPAL'S WALK FOR FREEDOM'?

Opal Lee, a now 98-year-old social activist, retired school teacher and counselor started the movement to make Juneteenth an official federal holiday when she was 89. She walked many miles to Washington D.C. in her effort to designate Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," Lee made history when she was present as President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law making June 19th of every year a national holiday.

Opal's Walk for Freedom is 2.5 miles symbolizing the two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation it took for news and enforcement of freedom to reach enslaved people in Texas in 1865.

WHO IS OPAL LEE?

Lee was a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and earlier this year she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. On May 11, 2024, Lee received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Southern Methodist University.

A painting of Lee now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. alongside portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.

Last year, Lee received the keys to a new home built where her childhood home once stood. It was burned down by an angry mob 85 years ago.

Lee has been instrumental in continuing the push to educate the masses about Juneteenth, especially children with the publishing of her children’s book, Juneteenth: A Children’s Story. 

Lee continues her mission pushing for equality and continuing to educate others through her annual Juneteenth walk every summer.

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