Fort Worth born-and-raised May Benson, 49, remembers when “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee kept her and the other children at the Bethlehem Center, 951 Evans Ave., level-headed.
Benson grew up in Butler Place, or “Brick City,” and made the journey to the Southside for school. There she met Lee.
“She was always doing something to make sure that we stayed constructed. She’s outstanding for real,” Benson said. “We know her personally. She kept us in check at the Bethlehem Center.”
March participants check in for Opal Lee’s Walk for Freedom from Evans Avenue Plaza, 1050 Evans Ave., to the new Fort Worth City Hall, 100 Energy Way. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Walk for Freedom participants gather to begin walking on June 18. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Opal Lee, center, prepares to begin the two-and-a-half mile Walk for Freedom on June 18. For five years, Lee advocated for Juneteenth — also known as Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day — to become a federal holiday. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Texas governor candidate Beto O’Rourke walks alongside Opal Lee on June 18. O’Rourke served as U.S. representative for Texas’s 16th congressional district until 2019. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Opal Lee begins the two-and-a-half mile walk on June 18. Lee walked from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., over six years to advocate to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The walk earned her the name “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” and June 19 became a federal holiday in 2021. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Police officers lead the march on June 18. Participants walk over Interstate 35 on East Hattie Street. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Hundreds of people in Fort Worth participate in the first Walk for Freedom on June 18 since Juneteenth had been declared a federal holiday. Participants began their trek at Evans Avenue Plaza, 1050 Evans Ave., and concluded at the new Fort Worth City Hall, 100 Energy Way. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
March participants Aniska Douglas, far left, Helen Sanders, center left, Genice Browning, center right, and May Benson, far right, stop in the shade on June 18. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
March participants stop at a water station on Hemphill Street on June 18. Volunteers handed out water bottles to participants at the Walk for Freedom. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
Benson said the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” is somebody to look up to. Benson and her mother, Genice Browning, 77, marched along with Lee for her 2½-mile Walk for Freedom on June 18.
Hundreds of people in Fort Worth participated in the first Walk for Freedom on June 18 since Juneteenth had been declared a federal holiday. Participants began their trek at Evans Avenue Plaza, 1050 Evans Ave., and concluded at the new Fort Worth City Hall, 100 Energy Way.
The 2½-mile walk represented the 2½ years it took for news of emancipation to reach enslaved people in Texas and other Southern states in 1865.
For six years, Lee, 95, advocated for Juneteenth — or Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day — to be deemed a federal holiday.
She achieved just that when President Joseph Biden signed Senate Bill 475, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, into law.
“This is history,” Benson said.
Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, by following our guidelines.
