Charles Farmer
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Opal Lee and several hundred friends and supporters took a walk to remember Wednesday morning, a 2.5-mile trek near Fair Park to celebrate Juneteenth.
This year’s Opal’s Walk for Freedom is the third since Juneteenth became a federal holiday, thanks to advocacy of Lee and Dione Sims, her fellow Fort Worth local and producer of the local Fort Worth Annual Juneteenth celebration.
Opal Lee speaks before the walk at Fair Park. She aims to keep on walking on Juneteenth, with plans to take her stroll in Washington in 2026, when she’ll be 100.
Charles Farmer
The walk recalls the 2.5 years it took for official word of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas, when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay on June 19, 1865, and announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free.
The newly freed Black American named that day “Juneteenth.”
Opal Lee walks with Dione Sims and Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
Charles Farmer
“Be a committee of one,” Lee told the crowd after the walk, urging them to advocate for freedom and equality as individuals.
This year the walk moved from its original home in Fort Worth to Dallas, and Lee has ambitious plans to take the show on the road. She intends to walk in D.C. in 2026, at 100 years old.
As she put it in her speech, “July 4th freed the land, Juneteenth freed the people.”
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred, in the blue T-shirt, joins the crowd.
Charles Farmer
Erykah Badu anoints the stage with peace and love.
Charles Farmer
The Dallas Mavericks drummers and cheerleaders joined the walk.
Charles Farmer
