Opal Lee is 94, and she’s doing a holy dance.
It’s a dance she said she and her ancestors have been waiting 155 years, 11 months and 28 days to do.
Ever since Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to spread the news of the Emancipation Proclamation outlawing slavery in Confederate states. President Abraham Lincoln had signed it more than two years earlier.
“And now we can all finally celebrate. The whole country together,” Lee told NPR minutes after a landslide House vote on Wednesday approving legislation establishing the day, now known as Juneteenth, as a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
President Biden signed the bill on Thursday, and Lee was standing beside him during the ceremony.
For decades, Opal Lee, 94, fought for the U.S. to recognize June 19 as a federal holiday. Meet the Grandmother of Juneteenth. https://t.co/EHoh7C1ECA
— NPR (@NPR) June 17, 2021