Opal Lee, known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth" spoke with kids at an elementary school in Fort Worth Thursday as part of their Career Day. Lee, 97, lives in Fort Worth and led the push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston and told slaves they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier.
"It's your responsibility when you grow up to be the best person you can and help someone else be a good person, too," Lee told students at Morningside Elementary.
Lee read her book, Juneteenth: a Children's Story, to students in the auditorium. She told kids they have opportunities that would not have existed for slaves, and they should use that opportunity to improve others' lives.
"Some of you will be doctors, lawyers, nurses, policemen, all kinds of jobs," she said. "In our Bible, it tells us we are our brother's keeper. That means you have to help somebody else besides yourself and your family, and so many people need help."
"I want Morningside to be a place of hope for kids," says Principal Mariam Kagaso. "We want our kids to love coming to school. We want to be a place of hope."
Morningside has a large percentage of students from low-income families.
Kagaso says students could meet with 30 professionals from different businesses including Superintendent Angelica Ramsey and State Representative Nicole Collier. They could also meet Texas Ballet Theater dancers and Eleno Ornelas, the Spanish language announcer for the Texas Rangers.
"We want them to know no matter where you start, you can have a great finish and a great middle," she says.
Kagaso says the career fair could show them opportunities connected to their hobbies they might not have known existed.
"We want to show them ballerinas, that is actually a job, gaming isn't just playing a game, but programmers program those games," she says. "It's about showing them some of their interests could be actual jobs."
Kagaso says one of her former students is now about to graduate from MIT.
"He was able to go into the field of robotics, and he would have never known that career existed if we hadn't shown him that was a possibility at Career Day," she says. "It gives you hope, and that's what education is. It just puts a smile on your face, and it says this job is worth it."
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