HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The “grandmother” of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, was honored with a special award in Houston on Thursday.
Lee received the Kay Bailey Hutchison Women of Texas History Award at a luncheon in the Galleria area.
The award comes just months before the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth.
It was back on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, freeing a quarter million enslaved people in Texas.
The award honors Lee’s efforts to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, which was made official in 2021.
“Juneteenth means freedom and it means freedom for all of us. It’s not a Black thing. It’s not a Texas thing. Freedom is for everybody. And you need to know that we’re all free yet,” Lee said.
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