Opal Lee gets keys to her new Texas home 85 years after a racist mob drove her family from that lot

By JAMIE STENGLE and KENDRIA LaFLEUR
Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The 97-year-old Texan known for her push to make Juneteenth a national holiday has been given the keys to her new home. Opal Lee’s new house is built on the same tree-lined corner lot in Fort Worth that her family was driven from by a racist mob when Lee was 12. Friday’s ceremony to welcome Lee into the newly completed home comes just days before the nation celebrates Juneteenth, the holiday marking the end of slavery across the U.S. Several area groups came together to built and furnish the house, which was completed less than three months after the first wall was raised.