Opal Lee’s 100th Birthday Marks Museum Site Clearance

Opal Lee marked her 100th birthday in Fort Worth on October 7 as crews began clearing the site for the planned National Juneteenth Museum, a project dedicated to the history of the holiday she spent years campaigning to make a federal observance. The museum held a “Clearing the Way” ceremony in the city’s Historic Southside, where demolition began at the future site. Lee, a retired teacher and longtime civil rights activist, attended the event. Museum CEO Jarred Howard said the project and the timing of the ceremony were built around honoring Lee’s legacy. The planned museum is 50,000 square feet. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a $3 million donation toward construction and a genealogy center within the museum. Lee expressed gratitude at the ceremony after the announcement. The museum is intended to tell the history of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news of freedom for enslaved people there. The holiday became a federal observance in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. Lee was beside him at the signing.