NEED TO KNOW
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Opal Lee, also known as “The Grandmother of Juneteenth,” will miss marching in this year’s Walk of Freedom event
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The 98-year-old was recently hospitalized, which led to her first time sitting out the march since it launched in 2016
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This year marks the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth
Opal Lee, known to many as “The Grandmother of Juneteenth,” will not participate in this year’s Walk for Freedom march due to a recent hospitalization.
Since the Fort Worth, Texas, event launched in 2016, Lee has never missed one. However, while traveling to receive the International Freedom Conductor Award at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Ohio in May, she was hospitalized, KDFW reported at the time.
“She’s 98 and the family really wants to keep her in,” her granddaughter, Dione Sims, told the Fort Worth Report on Tuesday, June 17.
Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty
Opal Lee walks her annual 2.5-mile Juneteenth march in 2021
Sims also told WFAA that although Lee’s health will prevent her from leading the Walk for Freedom, she still plans to participate.
“It is our plan to have Miss Opal in a safe situation as possible, but still able to enjoy the walk that she had the vision for. So, she may be present and she may not,” Sims said in a statement to WFAA. “But right now, we’re planning on not. But if she is, she’ll be in a vehicle.”
Lee’s family added that, if for any reason she cannot be present, the retired teacher will attend virtually.
Lee previously expressed gratitude for the support she received after being hospitalized.
“Although I am unable to return the many texts and calls I have received over the past few days, please know that each one is appreciated; I am truly grateful for your concern and good wishes,” Lee wrote in a June 1 Facebook post.
Sims, who serves as the president and founder of Unity Unlimited Incorporated, will now lead the 2.5-mile walk in her grandmother’s place. The event will begin at 9 a.m. local time at Farrington Field in the Cultural District.
Elizabeth Frantz for The Washington Post via Getty
Opal Lee speaks during a Juneteenth concert at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 13, 2023
Sims is also a member of the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, which Lee helped develop, per WFAA.
“The ability for us to impact, you know, not just Fort Worth, but the nation, with the story of Emancipation, wherever it happened. I think that’s the beauty of the National Juneteenth Museum,” Sims previously told the news station in May.
June 19, 1865, marks the day some of the last enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told of their freedom, nearly two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
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In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation into law, making the date, known as Juneteenth, a federally recognized holiday.
This year will be the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth.
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