Yahoo Finance 94-Year-Old Has ‘Off The Chain’ Response To New Juneteenth Holiday
Opal Lee, the 94-year-old known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” due to her tireless campaigning to make the commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. a national federal holiday, had an “off the chain” response to the realization of her dream on Thursday. Literally.
“I guess I thought it would be like this. But, to have it actually happen was, can I use the phrase the children use? It was off the chain,” the retired educator told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“You know, I knew that the Senate had passed the bill but I thought the House was going to take a lot longer and to find out that both of them had and I’m on my way to Washington D.C. and going to be in the White House?” Lee continued, referring to the moment she watched President Joe Biden sign the bill into law.
“I don’t know how to describe it. I’m humbled by it, I truly am,” the activist continued. “But you just have to take my word for it. I’m so grateful, I’m so very, very grateful.”
Cuomo asked Lee, who undertook marathon hikes in a bid to bring attention to the cause, to document some of the barriers she’d faced. But she deflected the attention to others’ involvement in the campaign.
“It’s not just one little old lady in tennis shoes who wanted Juneteenth to be a national holiday,” she said, citing the work of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation founded by the late Dr. Ronald Myers.
“I have followed in his footsteps,” she said. “I’m so glad we’ve got it and so many people have worked at it, not just me. People all over have played their part to make Juneteenth a national holiday.”
Watch the interview here:
"I just got to thinking... there must be something I could do to make people aware of Juneteenth and its significance," says Opal Lee, the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," of her iconic walks.
"I've kept on walking. I've kept on talking... now, Juneteenth is a national holiday." pic.twitter.com/DUbnHP9os9— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) June 18, 2021
Also on HuffPost
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
