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Dr. Opal Lee, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Southern Methodist University at the University’s May 11 commencement ceremony.
Lee is a civil rights icon who championed Juneteenth awareness, an informal Texas holiday celebrated since Reconstruction recognizing the day in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, when Black slaves in Galveston, and eventually the entire state, learned they were free.
“Having Ms. Lee join us at commencement and share her work through a symposium is a signal honor for our University,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “Her life’s work is most deserving of this recognition, and our students will be inspired by her.”
Earlier in May Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Lee has been instrumental in continuing the push to educate the masses about Juneteenth, especially children with the publishing of her children’s book, Juneteenth: A Children’s Story. She has been rewarded many times over for her work, including being gifted a new home where her childhood home once stood. It was burned down by an angry mob 85 years ago.
She has famously said, “If we can teach people to hate, then we can teach people to love.”
The 97-year-old has shown no signs of stopping her push for equality and education through her annual Juneteenth walk every summer.