Effort Underway To Nominate Fort Worth's Opal Lee For Nobel Peace Prize
WASHINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) – The Fort Worth civil rights icon who helped make Juneteenth a national holiday, could be up for one of the highest honors a person can receive.
North Texas Congressman Marc Veasey and 33 other members of Congress sent a letter to the Nobel Prize Nomination Committee to nominate Mrs. Opal Lee for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
Lee is a native Texan who worked more than 40 years to commemorate Juneteenth as a national holiday and has fought to ensure equality for all Americans.
President Biden signed legislation into law in June 2021 to make Juneteenth, or June 19, the 12th federal holiday.
The U.S. House voted 415-14 to send the bill to Biden.
"Ms. Opal Lee is a civil rights icon who has worked tirelessly to ensure that the Juneteenth holiday gets the national recognition it has long deserved," said Congressman Veasey. "I have been proud to call Ms. Lee a friend and mentor for nearly my whole life and was honored to work alongside her to finally get Juneteenth made into a national holiday last year. I cannot think of a better person who has constantly fought for justice, and that is why I am nominating her to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize."
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered.
That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.
READ LETTER HERE