Civil rights activist Opal Lee was featured at a TCU women’s basketball halftime in honor of Black History Month. Lee, who received the Honorary Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from TCU in December 2021, was interviewed by Tracy Syler-Jones, vice chancellor of marketing & communication.
“Before I interviewed Dr. Lee, I was struck by just how much she had accomplished,” Syler-Jones said. “We all know her as the ‘grandmother of Juneteenth,’ but what I did not realize is that her 45-year journey to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday is one of the many community efforts she has undertaken in her 95 years.”
In addition to her work to secure Juneteenth – the day enforcement of enslaved Black people’s freedom in America reached the shores of Galveston, Texas – as a national holiday, Lee, a long-time Fort Worth resident, has dedicated her time to helping the economically disadvantaged find housing and serving for years in public education.
Throughout the women’s basketball game, short video clips of the players were broadcast on the screens, and each player talked about how they have been impacted by Lee’s work.
“When I asked during the interview why it was so important to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday, she noted that ‘none of us are free until all of us are free’,” Syler-Jones said. “She is the epitome of a person who always strives for the greater good.”