FORT WORTH, Texas — Her 1,400 mile walk took her across the country, to President Joe Biden’s side as he made Juneteenth a federal holiday. Now she is honored on the walls of the Texas Capitol.
A portrait of Fort Worth’s Opal Lee was unveiled Wednesday in the Texas Senate chamber, where it will hang to recognize the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” The portrait was recommended by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in July 2021.
Biden signed a law in 2021 designating a holiday commemorating the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3, declaring the freedom of slaves in Texas. The announcement came nearly two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Her portrait will represent that “freedom is for all of us,” Lee, who is 96, said in a Tuesday interview ahead of its unveiling.
“It’s not a Texas thing, and it’s not a Black thing,” she said. “Freedom is for everyone, and we’re not free until we’re all free.”
Lee on Wednesday sat in a chair next to the portrait draped in black fabric as senators took turns recognizing her efforts. One they were done speaking, it was time: She helped to fold back the fabric to reveal the gold-framed image underneath. The room erupted into cheers and Lee joined in onlookers’ clapping from the gallery overhead.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “I didn’t know I looked that good.”
Houston artist Jess Coleman painted the portrait, which he based off photographs he took of her in Fort Worth.
It shows Lee in a green arm chair and blue floral dress that pop against the dark background. Coleman said he included personal touches like Lee’s pearls and had her sit in a chair at her home, rather than an office.
“I tried to make it a bit warmer than the star, usual political portraits ... to try and make it a little bit more personal, a little more intimate, I guess you could say,” Coleman said. “They refer to her as the grandmother of Juneteenth, right? So I wanted her to kind of have that feel.”
Lee’s portrait will be the second to hang in the Texas Senate honoring a Black Texan. A portrait of former Texas senator and U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan hangs in the chamber.
“Can you believe?” Lee said, her inflection raising. “My portrait in the Senate next to Barbara Jordan? Whoa!”
Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor, said the portrait is the first to be added to the Senate in about four decades.
“This is a historic day,” Patrick said.
Lee in 2016, at 89, decided to walk from Fort Worth to Washington. She started an online petition in support of Juneteenth being recognized as a federal holiday. Lee was a longtime teacher in the Fort Worth school district and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
“Young people to know the story of Opal Lee as they know the story of so many other persons whose portraits are displayed here in this chamber,” said Sen. Royce West, whose district includes part of eastern Tarrant County.
On June 19, 1939, when Lee was 12, hundreds of white rioters burned down her family’s Fort Worth home.
“Thank you for taking a difficult, traumatic experience and making us all better for it,” said Sen. José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat.
Said Sen. Kelly Hancock, a North Richland Hills Republican: “I don’t know that you’ve been apologized to before, but as a lifelong resident of Tarrant County, let me apologize for ... not welcoming you the way you should have been welcomed when you first moved to our county,” he said. “For today we all know that we are a very special county because of you and because of what you did.”
Other portraits in the Senate include images of a former U.S. president, legislators, and Confederate leaders, which has been a subject of debate.
“I’ve called for the Senate to think many times about who we honor... on these chamber walls,” said Sen. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat. Soon adding, “And whether or not they deserve it, it’s deserving and honoring for you to be honored on these chamber walls. Ms. Opal Lee, she is one such individual worthy of distinction.”
The ceremony was celebratory, with Lee receiving a standing ovation from onlookers and legislators.
After the portrait was unrelieved, Lee took photos with people on the floor. As Lee entered a corridor outside the chamber, she had a message for young people she delivered to reporters. She called on them to make themselves a “committee of one.”
“Change somebody’s mind, because their minds can be changed,” she said. “If people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love, and it’s up to you to do it.”
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