Opal Lee has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build a home on the lot southeast of Downtown Fort Worth where her family lived during her childhood. A mob of people burned the house down in 1939.
"I tried so hard to put it out of my mind because my mom had this house fixed up so nice," Lee says. "Our parents sent us to friends several blocks away, and they left under cover of darkness, and those people tore this place asunder. They drug the furniture out. They did despicable things, but our parents never ever discussed it with us.
Thursday morning, Lee used a buzz saw to cut a board for the house and helped raise the first wall into place.
"It's amazing. Just think when we were here, the whites didn't want us here and now there are all nationalities in this neighborhood," she says. "Times have changed, and I'm just so glad maybe I can be a part of that change."
Mayor Mattie Parker and several city council members joined volunteers at the site Thursday. Volunteers also joined from HistoryMaker Homes, which is helping with construction, and Texas Capital, which donated money for furniture.
Trinity Habitat sold Lee the lot for $10.
"A mob of hate showed up here eight decades ago," says Trinity Habitat Chief Executive Gage Yager. "A racist mob of hate, blind, ignorant, came trying to push people out simply because of the most silly thing: the color of our skin. The degree of melanin in our skin was a reason to not like somebody. That's the most unimportant characteristic all of us have. It's the content of our character as MLK said. But today, we showed up with hundreds of people, a different mob full of love."
Yager says the organization works with families to create communities. He says Habitat does not go into a neighborhood to build one house. Instead, he says the nonprofit works to create a sense of community that may have been lost in an area.
Yager says Trinity Habitat has built several hundred homes in the same neighborhood over the past 30 years. In turn, he says an engaged neighborhood will improve safety and schools.
"The way you build a strong neighborhood is one family at a time," he says. "The family's more important than the house. We build an excellent house, but it's ultimately about the family inside, their hard work, their character and their desire for the American dream that can turn entire neighborhoods around."
"I'll tell you I'm a humble human being, and I'm so thankful to everybody who had a part in doing this," Opal Lee says. "I've got two left feet, but I sure want to do a holy dance."
Lee says the number of volunteers from different backgrounds shows how Fort Worth has changed since the house she lived in as a kid was burned down.
"I'm so glad this is happening in this day and time so we can show togetherness. So many people have contributed to this," she says. "I'm a happy camper. I really am."
Lee and volunteers hope to finish the house by Juneteenth.
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