Community leaders and supporters gathered on October 7 to honor Dr. Opal Lee, the civil rights activist known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” on her 100th birthday and celebrate a major milestone for the future National Juneteenth Museum.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when news of emancipation reached enslaved Black Americans in Texas, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Lee’s decades of advocacy helped bring national recognition to Juneteenth and contributed to its designation as a United States federal holiday in 2021.
As part of the event, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it has committed $3 million to support construction of the museum. Plans for the museum include a genealogy center intended to help visitors discover and preserve family histories through experiences powered by FamilySearch. Elder Michael A. Dunn, President of the Church’s United States Southwest Area, joined museum leaders and community organizations for the Wednesday morning gathering. ...
“The National Juneteenth Museum is going to allow us to really help people everywhere understand what Dr. Lee has represented—her tenacity, her verve, her unrelenting quest to be able to bring truth and light to this story of our nation that still needs to be told,” Elder Dunn said. “This is what the National Juneteenth Museum will do.”
Visit Church Newsroom to learn more about the National Juneteenth Museum and genealogy center.
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