06/19/2026
Tewa Women United's office will be closed on Friday, June 19, in commemoration of Juneteenth.
There are many reasons to celebrate this day of emancipation and freedom. We want to lift up one woman in particular: Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth.
A retired educator and counselor, Ms. Opal has dedicated much of her life to preserving the history of Juneteenth. In 2016, at the age of 89, she began a 1,400-mile trek from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to petition for the recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday.
Ms. Opal's early life was not easy. She was 12 years old on June 19, 1939, when 500 white rioters vandalized and burned down her family's home in Forth Worth.
Recalling it years later, she said, "The fact that it happened on the 19th day of June has spurred me to make people understand that Juneteenth is not just a festival."
It took more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for Union soldiers to arrive in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and announce the freedom of more than 250,000 enslaved Black people. It took 82 years for Ms. Opal to go from watching her home burned down to witnessing the signing of Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021.
Change happens. Freedom is all of our birthright. We celebrate Juneteenth with Ms. Opal and all our Black sisters and brothers.
