06/20/2026
The Extraordinary Women's League Celebrates this Extraordinary Woman
Dr. Opal Lee!!!! What an Extraordinary legend this 99 year old teacher, counselor, author and inspirational activist is!!!
A Mighty Girl's Pick of the Day is in honor of Juneteenth: "Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth" by Alice Faye Duncan. As a child in Fort Worth, Texas, Opal Lee loved nothing more than the annual Juneteenth picnic -- a long, joyful day of music, dancing, and red strawberry lemonade in honor of the morning in 1865 when, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom finally reached the enslaved people of Galveston. But on Juneteenth night in 1939, when Opal was twelve years old, a white mob descended on her family's brand-new home and burned it to the ground.
The little girl who watched her house burn grew up to become a teacher, a community organizer, and -- decade after decade -- a quiet, persistent voice insisting that Juneteenth deserved to be a holiday for every American. And in 2016, at the age of eighty-nine, she set out on foot from her front door in Fort Worth to walk all the way to the White House, determined that somebody, surely, would notice a little old lady in tennis shoes asking Congress to recognize the day her ancestors became free.
Drawing on Opal Lee's own memories, Alice Faye Duncan tells her story alongside the larger story of Juneteenth, with Opal -- known to the children gathered around her as Great-Grand Dear -- guiding readers from the Juneteenth picnics of her childhood to her long walks for justice to the White House signing ceremony in 2021 that finally made the holiday national. Keturah A. Bobo's warm, light-filled illustrations carry the reader through every stage, and rich back matter -- including a Juneteenth timeline, a Red Punch recipe, and a brief biography -- helps families and classrooms keep the conversation going. Highly recommended for ages 5 and up.
"Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free" is available at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781400231256 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4ev1qh3 (Amazon)
Opal Lee has told her story for adult readers in a new memoir "A Committee of One" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780063459014 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4oDQqmc (Amazon)
There is also a new graphic novel about her life for ages 10 and up "First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781637157770 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3SlFcqD (Amazon)
Opal Lee is one of the newest addition to the Inspiring Women Doll series for ages 6 and up at https://amzn.to/4gqA4eM
For books for children and teens about more pioneering African American women, visit our blog post "99 Books about Extraordinary Black Mighty Girls and Women" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14276
You can also find books about courageous women who fought for equality as part of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in our blog post "50 Inspiring Books on Girls & Women of the Civil Rights Movement," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11177
