Dr Opal Lee, also known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, is making plans to move. She's headed to a new home on land her family owned decades ago.
Back in 1939, then-12-year-old Opal Lee moved into a home with her family on East Annie Street in Fort Worth's Historic Southside neighborhood. Just four days later, an angry mob burned their house to the ground.
Years later, the Grandmother of Juneteenth went on a mission to find out who owns that plot of land. Her granddaughter, Dione Sims, tells KRLD News she found out that it was owned by Trinity Habitat for Humanity, whose board she sat on for many years, and she reached out to its CEO.
For legal purposes, Habitat ended up selling Opal the land for $10. And to take things even further, they're working with Grapevine-based History Maker Homes to build a brand new house for her on that plot of land.
The groundbreaking for the new home was last October on Opal's 97th birthday, and the first wall will be going up next month.
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