Opal Lee, the 96-year-old Texan whose efforts helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S., became on Wednesday only the second Black person whose portrait will hang in the senate chamber of the state Capitol.
Lawmakers gave a lengthy standing ovation for Lee, who two years ago stood next to President Joe Biden as Juneteenth officially became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.
