Opal Lee, The Grandmother of Juneteenth, Will Get Her Family Home Back

If ribbon cuttings are for “wimps,” as said Thursday morning, then the board sawing was very appropriate for Opal Lee, the honoree of a Fort Worth wall-raising ceremony.

One of Fort Worth’s favorite daughters and the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Lee used a power saw to cut the 2-by-6 symbolic board for her new house at a well-attended morning ceremony honoring her legacy.

The home will be built on the site of where her family’s own house once stood, in the 900 block of East Annie Street, then a mostly white neighborhood. As a girl, Lee watched as a mob burned down her home on June 19, 1939.

Years later, Lee still hoped to own the lot. Thursday she not only returned but held court with Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, city council members, and business executives. They stood alongside her to push up the first wall in what will become her next home.

“Thank you so much, thank you so much,” Lee said at the ceremony. “I’m a happy camper. All this that you are doing, I hope I can keep walking and talking and telling people that we are all one people. That’s what we are, all one people. And the sooner we accept this, the better.”

A Team Effort For Fort Worth

Lee getting the opportunity to live once again on Annie Street is a combined effort. Texas Capital, Trinity Habitat for Humanity, and HistoryMaker Homes partnered to make the house a reality.

Trinity Habitat for Humanity sold the lot to her for $10. Texas Capital connected with HistoryMaker Homes, a longtime homebuilding partner, to help with the construction. HistoryMaker Homes generously offered to build the house for free. Texas Capital Foundation will fund the furnishings. Executives Jon Larson, Texas Capital’s head of homebuilder and community finance; Nelson Mitchell, CEO of HistoryMaker Homes; and Gage Yager, CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity; all had the honor of pushing up the first wall with Lee.

“This is what it means to live with love and forgiveness,” Parker told the crowd.

At the ceremony, Mitchell, CEO of the homebuilding company launched 75 years ago by his grandfather, thanked Lee for her life’s work.

“It’s an inspiration to all of us to be better people,” said Mitchell, who added that the project is something he was proud to be a part of. “We’re here to raise up what was torn down.”

Grandmother of Juneteenth

Lee’s title of “Grandmother of Juneteenth” reflects on her decades of educating others about Juneteenth, the day the enslaved Americans in Texas learned of their freedom. She also worked to get Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday. Congress passed the measure, and Lee was the honored guest when Pres. Joe Biden signed it into law in June of 2021.

Construction is underway on Lee’s house. The concrete slab already was poured, and nails were being hammered well before 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Targeted move-in date? June 19, 2024, a federal holiday.