Ms. Opal Lee, a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author, leader and activist, has signed with the entertainment and sports agency, Creative Artists Agency.
Lee, affectionately known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” decided that the time was now to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and dedicated her life to doing so.
In 2016, Lee brought national attention to the cause with the “Opal’s Walk 2 DC” campaign. She planned to walk more than 1,400 miles from her home in Texas to the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C.
In 2019, she launched a petition that would garner 1.5 million signatures and supporters including Jennifer Lopez and Lupita Nyong’o. She delivered that bill to Congress in 2020.
Last year, Juneteenth became a federal holiday and she “stood alongside President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in honor and acknowledgment of her lifelong service.”
“Establishing the federal holiday has created a vacuum for accurate information about Juneteenth,” explained Dione Sims, Ms. Lee’s manager and Founder of Unity Unlimited, Inc. “We are honored that CAA is putting their resources to work to provide Ms. Opal the opportunities to educate the world about Juneteenth and the freedoms that were gained.”
Lee has continued her annual 2.5-mile walk alongside her luminaries. This walk symbolizes the two and a half years it took for those enslaved in Texas to learn about their freedom.
“It is Ms. Opal’s mission to continue to celebrate and educate about Black history and culture, and to champion social justice in her community and beyond,” states CAA.
She continues to be repped by manager Dione Sims and publicist D’Aria Hookfin.