Ninety-four-year-old activist Opal Lee, known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," celebrates, as Juneteenth was officially signed by President Biden as a federal holiday, making it the fifth holiday to be put on the national calendar in the past century. On June 19, 1865, Gordon Granger rode into Texas to bring slaves the news that they had been freed, over two years after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Lee, who has worked for decades to make Juneteenth a national holiday, started a walking campaign for which she would walk 2-1/2 miles for the 2-1/2 years it took for slaves in Texas to learn of their freedom. Although the movement was met with some opposition and challenges, progress was rather quick, considering the holiday only entered the coverage of mainstream media a few years ago. "I knew I would see it happen in my lifetime," Lee says. "It's like a dream."
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