As a part of Barbie’s “Inspiring Women” collection, the grandmother of Juneteenth, Dr. Opal Lee, has been honored with her own Barbie doll. The inspiring women collection has been created to “honor extraordinary women from all fields who inspire future generations,” and Dr. Opal Lee is absolutely worthy of this honor.
The doll tribute includes Lee in her “signature look” for her annual Opal’s Walk for Freedom: a custom event T-shirt, white joggers, and sneakers. The doll was designed by Carlyle Nuera, and the package was designed by Vicky Gevorkyan. As the holiday approaches, this Barbie can be a reminder of the effort and dedication Dr. Opal Lee put in for Juneteenth to be recognized as a federal holiday.
Who Is Dr. Opal Lee
Born in Marshall, Texas, Lee is an activist and retired teacher. Earning her Master’s degree in Counseling and Guidance from North Texas State University. She taught in Fort Worth for 15 years before dedicating much of her life to her community. As a child, 500 white rioters burned down her family’s home on June 19th in 1939.
“The people didn’t want us. They started gathering. The paper said the police couldn’t control the mob. My father came with a gun and police told them if he busted a cap they’d let the mob have us,” Lee recalled. “They started throwing things at the house and when they left, they took out the furniture and burned it and burned the house.” -Dr. Opal Lee
Each year on June 19, Lee makes a two-and-a-half-mile pilgrimage to commemorate Juneteenth. Often referred to as Black American Independence Day. The holiday celebrates the day in 1865, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, when more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Texas learned that they were finally free, marking the true end of slavery in America.
The resulting holiday, Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day), has long been a major celebration in Texas, but until 2021, when President Biden signed a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, not all 50 states recognized or commemorated it.
The Importance Of Juneteenth
The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is often romanticized. We talk about activists like Dr. Opal Lee, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and so many more, as if they’re figureheads and not people who were battling something bigger than them. Carrying a burden that was bestowed upon them simply because they were/are Black and living in a country where the color of your skin could cost you your home, or even your life (unfortunately, not much has changed).
Respectfully, Abraham Lincoln didn’t end slavery out of the kindness of his heart. It was a strategic move during the Civil War. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation primarily as a political weapon to save the Union, rather than for purely moral abolitionist reasons. He recognized that freeing enslaved people would cripple the Confederate economy, deprive Southern forces of labor, and bolster the Union army.
Heavy on the economic part. Slavery generated vast wealth for the antebellum South’s elite planter class, producing cash crops worth nearly $250 million annually by 1860. Enslaved people were the South’s largest financial asset, and Lincoln was well aware of it.
Furthermore, although Juneteenth is cause for celebration, it’s a reminder that freedom for African-Americans wasn’t just handed over. A reminder of how deeply sown into the roots of this country slavery was, that even after it was legally abolished, slave owners in Texas still refused to free their enslaved people. Because of Dr. Opal Lee, African-Americans get to celebrate their freedom on a national level, and give flowers to activists like Lee while she can still smell them.
