An intimate crowd gathered at Southern Methodist University on Thursday to hear from Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, as part of the university’s recognition for her life of activism.

The matriarch of five generations spoke softly as she answered questions during a symposium before she receives an honorary doctorate on Saturday at SMU’s graduation ceremony.

Next to Lee sat her granddaughter, Dione Sims, who spoke of her relationship with the woman known to the world as the Grandmother of Juneteenth.

Candice Lucas-Bledsoe, director of the Action Research Center in Dallas and the SMU Cox executive education facilitator, moderated the conversation between Lee and Sims that often drew laughs and gasps alike.

Even though Lee told the crowd to “call me grandmother,” Sims pointed out her “gramere” isn’t the “lovey dovey grandmother” with flowery words. Instead, Lee loves with acts of service, where she’s always walking the walk, Sims said.

Lee’s grassroots campaign with a symbolic walk to Washington, D.C., led Juneteenth’s designation as a national holiday in 2021.

“The Fourth of July freed the land,” Lee said. “Juneteenth freed the people.”

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, carrying with them the news that enslaved people had been freed. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation 2½ years prior.

Since then, Juneteenth has long been celebrated in Black communities, including in Marshall, Lee’s hometown in East Texas, bringing people together.

“Everybody was family in that neighborhood,” Lee said. “I tell you, it was just a great, big, happy community where I lived.”

Community is in the DNA of Lee’s family, including her granddaughter.

“We’re wanting things to be better for everyone,” Sims said. “It’s about helping people and helping people to be their best selves.”

Lee says her tireless spirit of magnanimity came from watching her grandparents on her mother’s side. The elders took care of 19 children in the family, Lee said, but still had room in their lives to help others.

“I remember a time when there was a lady who didn’t have a place to stay,” Lee said. “My grandfather, my grandmother simply put a sheet up in their room so that she could have privacy. I think that rubbed off on me. … It’s just part of what we do.”

Home destroyed by mob

Lee and her family discovered though that not every community opened its arms, especially to African Americans who moved into predominantly white neighborhoods, like hers did in 1939.

“When she was 12 years old, Lee recalled when a racist mob destroyed her family’s Fort Worth home on Annie Street.

“My mom had it fixed up so nice,” she said. “And on the morning of 19th, people started gathering. The police were there. Then my dad came home with a gun. The police told him ‘If you bust a cap, we’ll let this mob have you.’”

Under cover of darkness, Lee’s parents sent her and her siblings to a friend’s house blocks away.

“Those people tore that place asunder,” she recalled. “They pulled the furniture out. They burned it. They did despicable things. But our parents never ever discussed it with us.”

Sometime in the week after her family fled the house, it was wrecked and burned to the ground, Sims told The Dallas Morning News after the event.

But this Juneteenth will mark a special milestone for Lee: She will finally be able to reclaim her family’s space on Annie Street, with a new home built on the same lot her father once owned.

Earlier this year, Lee and a team of community members raised the first wall on her new home on Annie Street in Fort Worth. Texas Capital Bank, Trinity Habitat for Humanity and HistoryMaker Homes partnered to rebuild the home at no cost to Lee.

Lee’s family is charged with making her current home into a museum, much as was done with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home. The Grandmother of Juneteenth plans to leave all of the memorabilia and awards in the home as a showcase of her life and legacy.

“When I go to the new house, I’m only taking my toothbrush with me,” Lee said.

What’s next for Opal?

At 97 years young, Lee says there’s always something that keeps her busy.

“She’s always doing something,” said Sims, who is the founding executive director of the National Juneteenth Museum. “She helps no matter what, even to her own hurt. At times, we try to put some fences around her. Doesn’t work.”

Lee is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, was named 2021 Texan of the Year by The Dallas Morning News editorial board, Fort Worth Inc.’s 2022 Person of the Year, and was a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. In 2023, she became the second African American to be honored with a portrait in the Texas Senate chamber.

On May 3, Lee received the nation’s highest civilian honor – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – from President Joe Biden.

“The Bible says we are our brother’s keeper, so let’s get busy helping folks as long as you can and as much as you can,” Lee said. “That don’t mean you got to take him home and give him your bed.”

Lee couldn’t be more excited to share that The National Juneteenth Museum will open in 2026 near her home in Fort Worth. The $70 million, 50,000-square foot museum will serve as a cultural center, business incubator and mixed-income residential community.

Juneteenth is “a sacred affair,” Lee said, especially as cities across the country continue Opal’s Walk to commemorate her grassroots activism.

This year, designated cities will walk 2.5 miles simultaneously: The Fort Worth walk will start at 9 a.m. Dallas time.

“But just think all these people at the same time doing the same thing, and it’s all for good,” Lee said.