I promise it was no hyperbole when I said to Dr. Opal Lee, in the presence of her granddaughter Dione Sims: “I hope it doesn’t make you blush when we rightfully call you a living, breathing national treasure.” Roughly 12 hours later, I would be on stage with Sims and Lee in front of a packed house at St. Francis Auditorium in Santa Fe, thanking the Grandmother of Juneteenth for her undaunted quest to save the soul of America. No hyperbole. No cap.
If you’ve never heard of Lee, here’s the least you need to know: In 2016, at 89 years of age, she set out on a plan to walk 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas — roughly four hours from Galveston, Texas, (significant for reasons I will share in a bit) to Washington, D.C., in order to convince Congress to make Juneteenth the 11th national holiday. Ever heard the term “voting with your feet?” Well, this was lobbying by foot. In fact, it was quite the feat (sorry, I couldn’t resist). With an initial goal of securing 100,000 petition signatures along her journey to our nation’s capital, she collected 1.5 million signatures in support of a national observance of Juneteenth.
So what’s Juneteenth, you ask? It is soon to be a 4-year-old national holiday thanks to the 117th Congress, President Joe Biden and Lee. Unironically, the last holiday to achieve federal observance status prior to Juneteenth was Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983 (courtesy of the 98th Congress and President Ronald Reagan). But why though? Well, consistent with this same spirit of emancipatory chivalry, by the time Union Major Gen. Gordon Granger and his escort rolled into Galveston to compel adherence to General Order No. 3 on June 19th, 1865 — it was more than two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. General Order No. 3 was a “courtesy” reminder to Texas that all slaves were to be freed — like yesterday.
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