Opal Lee, “Juneteenth’s Grandma,” will receive her eighth honorary doctorate for her unwavering commitment to civil rights

Opal Lee will soon receive her eighth honorary doctorate in recognition of her legacy of activism and unwavering commitment to civil rights.

According to People MagazineSouthern Methodist University will present the 97-year-old “Grandma of Juneteenth” with an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree at a commencement ceremony on May 11.

“For Ms. Lee to join us at the commencement and share her work during the symposium is a signal of honor for our university” – SMU President R. Gerald Turner – wrote within the statement. “Her life’s work is most deserving of this recognition, and our students will be inspired by her.”

In 2016, Lee, 89, made a symbolic 2,500-kilometer walk from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to urge Congress and then-President Barack Obama’s administration to declare June 11 a federal holiday honoring the tip of slavery. after the civil war. She stood nearby when President Joe Biden formally signed the bill into law five years in a while June 17, 2021.

“I must tell you that I have only been president for a few months, but I think this will go down as one of the greatest honors that I will experience as president – not because I did it, but because you did it, Democrats and Republicans.” Biden told her on the time, People magazine reported. “It’s a huge, huge honor.”

Lee’s dream of rebuilding her childhood home, destroyed by a racist mob in 1939, got here true in December when she purchased the land where the home once stood. After years of trying to buy the land, Lee discovered that Trinity Habitat for Humanity had purchased it. The organization’s CEO, Gage Yager, informed her that a plot of land in Fort Worth was available, Washington Post. she got here forward, sold it to her for just $10, and offered to construct her a house. Last month, she helped construct its first wall.

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According to SMU, Lee will achieve one other of her goals with the planned opening of the $70 million, 50,000-square-foot National Juneteenth Museum on south Fort Worth, where she operated her own modest Juneteenth museum.

The latest constructing will function a museum, cultural center and business incubator, and will be home to a mixed-income housing community. Lee is the museum’s honorary chairwoman and, together with her granddaughter, is a current board member.

Among the notable nods, as well as to seven other Ph.D.s, the Dallas Morning News editorial board named Lee its 2021 Texan of the Year, and he or she is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In 2023, she became the second African-American woman, after the late Republican Barbara Jordan, to be honored with a portrait in chamber of the Texas State Senate, SMU reports.