At age 12, Opal Lee’s family was violently driven from their Fort Worth home by a racist mob angered that a Black family had moved into the neighborhood. Now, 85 years later, the indomitable 97-year-old activist is finally reclaiming that very property, with construction underway on a new home for her on the tree-lined corner lot.
“I’m not a person who sheds tears often, but I’ve got a few for this project,” said Lee said to The Associated Press. A wall-raising ceremony was fittingly held Thursday, with Lee, who is an architect of the Juneteenth holiday, helping lift the framework into place. The home is expected to be ready for her to move in by June 19th – Juneteenth.
That date in 1939 saw a 500-person white mob descend on Lee’s family home, smashing windows and furniture after they purchased the house. Her parents quickly evacuated Lee and her siblings to safety as the attacks escalated.
“Those people tore that place asunder,” Lee said. Her family never returned but persevered to buy another home elsewhere through sheer determination. “It didn’t stop them. They didn’t get angry and get frustrated, they simply knew that we had to have a place to stay and they got busy finding one for us.”
Though deeply impacted, the traumatic events largely went unspoken about in Lee’s family for decades. It wasn’t until recently that she felt compelled to try reclaiming the site of so much pain and racist hatred.
Trinity Habitat for Humanity had acquired the lot, and when Lee inquired about purchasing it three years ago, the non-profit’s CEO Gage Yager was stunned to learn its history before agreeing to sell it to her for just $10.
“It was heartening to see a mob of people full of love gathered in the place where a mob full of hatred had once gathered,” Yager said at Thursday’s ceremony.
The home is being built at no cost to Lee by HistoryMaker Homes, while funding for furnishings comes from the Texas Capital Bank philanthropic arm – a meaningful investment in the “Grandmother of Juneteenth’s” legacy.
For Lee, it represents reclaiming her family’s rightful place after decades of injustice. “I just want people to understand that you don’t give up,” she said. “If you have something in mind…it was ours and I wanted it to be ours again.”
This article has information from The Associated Press.