This Juneteenth HBCU celebration carries extra weight in 2026. The holiday just marked its fifth year as a federal observance, and at the center of that history stands a 99-year-old HBCU alumna who refused to let the world forget.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 — the day enslaved Black people in Texas finally learned of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It became a federal holiday in 2021. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because of Opal Lee.

Meet the Grandmother of Juneteenth

Opal Lee was born October 7, 1926, in Marshall, Texas. She graduated from Wiley College — now Wiley University — in 1952 with a degree in elementary education. Decades later, that same HBCU background would help shape one of the most consequential grassroots movements in modern American history.

Lee’s connection to Juneteenth isn’t abstract. On June 19, 1939, when she was just 12 years old, white rioters vandalized and burned down her family’s home in Fort Worth, Texas. She carried that memory for the rest of her life — and she turned it into decades of advocacy rather than letting it define her in silence.

In 2016, at 89 years old, Lee set out to walk from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to push for Juneteenth’s national recognition. “My idea was to walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., and that surely somebody would notice a little old lady in tennis shoes,” she said. She started that September and arrived in the capital the following January. Her Change.org petition gathered 1.6 million signatures along the way.

Five years later, in June 2021, President Joe Biden signed Senate Bill S. 475, making Juneteenth the eleventh federal holiday — with Lee standing right beside him. Biden called her the “grandmother of the movement.” In 2024, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

An HBCU Story Through and Through

Lee’s legacy is deeply rooted in HBCU tradition. Beyond her Wiley College degree, she’s a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated — joining in 2016, the same year she began her historic walk. Zeta Phi Beta has celebrated her ever since, holding her up as a living embodiment of the sorority’s commitment to service and social justice.

“Our Economic Justice Town Hall was both a tribute to Dr. Opal Lee’s historic contributions and a call to action,” said Dr. Stacie NC Grant, International President and CEO of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., during a past Juneteenth commemoration. “Juneteenth is more than a holiday. It’s a reminder of the work still needed to dismantle systemic barriers to equity.”

That’s the thread connecting HBCUs to this holiday at the deepest level. Lee didn’t just attend an HBCU — she carried the values that institution instilled in her all the way to the White House.

HBCU Energy at Celebrations Nationwide

You don’t have to look far this Juneteenth to find HBCU pride on full display elsewhere, too. In Goodyear, Arizona, the city’s Family Day: Homecoming celebration leans directly into HBCU culture, featuring a marching band made up of HBCU alumni from across the country. In Raleigh, North Carolina, the Capital City Juneteenth Celebration at Dorothea Dix Park is bringing HBCU line dancing to the main stage. In New York City, the Juneteenth Parade through Brooklyn draws HBCU alumni, fraternities, and sororities by the thousands every year.

Celebrate, Reflect, and Remember Her Name

Wherever you’re celebrating this weekend — a parade, a cookout, a step show, or a quiet moment of reflection — take a second to say her name: Opal Lee. A Wiley College graduate. A Zeta. A 99-year-old who walked her way into history and made sure this day belongs to all of us.

To every HBCU student, alum, faculty member, and supporter: Happy Juneteenth. The legacy continues with you.