By: Roy Douglas Malonson
The story of Juneteenth—the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States—is a story of promises delayed. But it is also a story of hard work, celebration, and two incredible people who dedicat- ed their lives to making sure America never forgot. Those two people are Al Edwards and Opal Lee. Because of their determination, a day that started as a local Texas tradition became a national holiday for the entire country.
To understand their involvement, we first have to look at what Juneteenth actually is. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were free.
However, Texas was far away from the rest of the country, and the news did not arrive right away. Enslaved people in Texas had to wait two and a half extra years to get their freedom. It finally happened on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that the war was over and all enslaved people were free. The newly freed people celebrated, and the next year, they started calling the day “Juneteenth.”
For over a hundred years, Juneteenth was celebrated mostly in Texas and by African American families who moved to other states. It was a beautiful tradition, but it was not an official government holiday. That is where Al Edwards entered the picture. Al Edwards was an African American lawmaker who was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1978. He grew up in Houston, Texas, and knew how important Juneteenth was to his community. He believed that the day deserved real, official recognition from the state government. In 1979, he introduced a bill to make Juneteenth an official state holiday in Texas.
It was not an easy fight. Many lawmakers did not think a new holiday was necessary, or they did not understand why Juneteenth mattered. But Edwards did not give up. He spent months talking to people, explaining the history, and convincing other politicians to vote for his bill. His hard work paid off. The bill passed, and on January 1, 1980, Texas became the very first state in the country to make Juneteenth an official paid state holiday. Because of his efforts, Edwards became known across the state as “Mr. Juneteenth.” He spent the rest of his life traveling and encouraging other states to follow Texas’s lead.
While Al Edwards was working through the legal system in Austin, Texas, another champion was working in Fort Worth. Her name was Opal Lee, and she is often called the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Opal Lee’s passion for Juneteenth came from a personal tragedy. When she was twelve years old, on June 19, 1939, a mob of white rioters attacked and burned down her family’s home in a white neighborhood. This terrible event did not make her hateful; instead, it made her determined to spend her life teaching love, history, and community unity. As a retired teacher and activist, she kept the spirit of Juneteenth alive by organizing huge community festivals in Fort Worth for decades.
As she grew older, Opal Lee decided that making Juneteenth a state holiday was not enough. She wanted it to be a national holiday, celebrated by every single American. In 2016, at the age of 89, she decided to do something unforgettable to get people’s attention. She started a campaign called “Opal’s Walk to DC.” She traveled to different cities across the country and walked two and a half miles in each place. She chose two and a half miles because it symbolized the two and a half years that Texas slaves had to wait for their freedom.
Her walks caught the attention of the entire nation. She started an online petition that gained over 1.5 million signatures from people who agreed that Juneteenth should be a national holiday. Politicians, celebrities, and regular citizens joined her cause. Finally, in June 2021, when Opal Lee was 94 years old, Congress passed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday. President Joe Biden invited her to the White House to watch him sign the bill into law, giving her the first pen he used to sign it.
Al Edwards and Opal Lee showed the world that two different approaches can achieve the same great goal. Edwards used his power as a lawmaker to change the rules from the inside, while Lee used her voice as a citizen to rally millions of people from the outside. Together, they made sure that the story of freedom in America is fully told and celebrated every single year.
