Opal’s Walk for Freedom
Fort Worth, Texas
On Thursday, June 19th, Dr. Opal Lee will complete her annual 2.5-mile walk to recognize the 2.5 years it took for the news and enforcement of freedom to reach the enslaved people in Texas.
Now a national holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the freedom gained when slavery was abolished all across the country. Unity Unlimited and Ms. Opal continue her walks to educate the nation on the importance of understanding that freedom is for everyone.
Join St. Martin’s Team
St. Martin-in-the-Fields has registered to walk as a team! Sign up to walk with us here.
Through the registration link, you can choose your T-shirt size, register multiple family members, add to our fundraising goal, and choose how you will participate. You can walk in person or virtually. They have a limited number of seats for our senior citizens and mobility challenged. Be sure to register to ride the shuttles that will follow the walkers.
Finally, you may not want to walk, but still want to enjoy the day of freedom with great live music and community engagement. Purchase a spectator ticket and T-shirt separately and join in the fun on the 50 yard line of Farrington Field.
Fr. Alan will be with us virtually, but will not be able to walk. Anika Rinker, our Parish Administrator will be heading our team on June 19. Stay tuned for more details, and where to find us on the day! The walk begins at 9 am at Farrington Field in Fort Worth. Sign up to walk with us today!
If you are unable to participate, but would like to contribute to our fundraising goal of $500, please donate here.
A Message from the North Region of the Dioces of Texas
Bishop Seage is urging North Region congregations to take part in Opal’s Walk, the annual Juneteenth event that honors the work of Fort Worth’s own Opal Lee to educate the whole country about the significance of June 19 and to continue the work toward justice and equality for all in our our country.
Texans may know this history better than most, but here’s some information you might want to share with your folks.
At the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free by the Emancipation Proclamation. (Only through the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.)
But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. That meant that in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, freedom for enslaved people didn’t come until two years later, on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston. Union Major-General Gordon Granger announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in Texas were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as Juneteenth by the newly freed people in Texas.
It took 115 more years, until 1980, for Texas House Bill 1016 to pass the 66th Legislature, declaring June 19 “Emancipation Day in Texas,” making it a legal state holiday.
It took 225 more years for it to become a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, an event at which Dr. Lee was honored at the White House for her work heralding the significance of the date.
But that didn’t end Opal Lee’s work. Sign up to walk with us today!