In an interview last summer, Opal Lee told BNG she would “keep on walking and talking until somebody listens” in her fight for social change. And eight months later, the now 97-year-old “Grandmother of Juneteenth” is keeping her word.
Lee’s advocacy for racial justice and equality was sparked by an experience she had at just 12 years of age when her family moved into an all-white neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas. After just five days, she told CBS News, a mob showed up and “tore it asunder,” setting the home on fire and destroying the residence.
Opal Lee (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP)
While Lee’s family was forced to move on from the property in 1939, the 97-year-old recently decided it was time to find her way back to the old home.
After searching for the address, Lee discovered the plot of land was vacant, with no home built there. The land is owned by the area’s local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. So, Lee called Trinity Habitat for Humanity and spoke with their CEO, Gage Yager, who told her she could not buy the property.
Instead, she would have to settle for a gift.
Yager told CBS Habitat plans not only to give Opal Lee the land for free but also build a house for her on it. He hopes it will be ready for Lee to move in before her 99th birthday.
Gage Yager
Although the project does not undo the injustice done against her family and their original home back in 1939, it does bring Lee’s story full circle. From ages 12 to 97, Lee’s passion for creating change has changed the world, inspiring others to educate themselves by remembering history and to love others by choosing to live in ways that don’t repeat it.
Now, her work has caught up to her in the reclamation of a plot of land and a soon-to-be home. A space once plagued with injustice and hatred will become a representation of the love Opal Lee’s work has helped bring to the forefront of the world.
And in the two years it will take to complete the project, Lee is not going to stop advocating for justice any time soon. She told CBS, “We don’t have to sit around and wait for the Lord to come to us. In fact, he’s going to have to catch me.”
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Opal Lee may be the ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ but she’s not done working for justice yet