The three words of the above title are now famous. They became celebrated in 2017, after the U. S. Senate voted to require Senator Elizabeth Warren to stop speaking. She kept on reading a letter from Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Shewaswarned….Nevertheless,she persisted,” said Majority Leader McConnell about Senator Warren’s speech in the Senate that day (the Atlantic.com/ entertainment/archives/2017/02/nevertheless- she-persisted/).
Senator Warren’s perseverance guaranteed that Ms. King’s letter would be enshrined forever in the Congressional Records. Historians in future generations will read it and be thankful.
The invigorating phrase, “Nevertheless, she persisted,” has a much broader application than to just Senator Warren. It describes other women who are remembered for their tenacity.
As Juneteenth approaches, it seems appropriate to name some Black women who exemplified persistence. Harriet Tubman, for example, saved hundreds from slavery through her Underground Railroad efforts.
Sojourner Truth made profound differences in the struggle to end injustices. Her “Ain’t I a woman?” speech is a monumental message about equal rights for women.
Rosa Parks’ bravery, by being arrested rather than moving to the back of the bus, helped end segregation on buses.
Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, insisted his casket be open at his funeral. This 14-year-old young boy was kidnapped, tortured, beaten, and shot in the head, and his body was thrown into a river. The graphic images of Emmett so brutally disfigured that his face was unrecognizable, and of his heartbroken, grieving mother, horrified the nation (history.com/topics/black-history- emmett-till-/).
Ms. Till persisted in doing something indescribably difficult for her, but it resulted in law enforcement and the judicial system coming under renewed scrutiny. Who could see that and not feel compassion? She was effective in helping improve justice for all, regardless of skin color.
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges showed remarkable courage when she desegregated the previously all-White elementary school in New Orleans. Parents removed their children and many teachers walked out. Only one teacher agreed to have Ruby as her student. Every day, U. S. Marshals walked Ruby through the crowds of protestors who shouted racial epitaphs and threats. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Opal Lee was another extra- ordinary Black woman whose accomplishment many people don’t know about. It is possible we might not have a Federal holiday known as “Juneteenth” without her.
On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay, and proclaimed that all of the more than 250,000 Texas slaves were free by executive order. This day, known as Juneteenth, was celebrated the next year and every year since then.
Opal Lee was born in Marshall, Texas, on October 7, 1926, but she grew up in Fort Worth. Her grandfather, Zachrah Broadus Sr., was the son of an enslaved mother (Alice Fay Duncan, “OPAL LEE AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FREE,” Nashville, TN: Tommy Nelson, 2022).
Long before she would be known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal and her family fled from the home they had just moved into the day before. A mob of about 500 White racists showed up in the darkness. They broke windows with stones, smashed furniture and burned the family’s belongings before destroying the house. The police stood idly by, threatening to turn Opal’s father over to the mob (Timothy Bella, washingtonpost. com/nation/2023/12/29/racist- mob-black-family-homeopal- lee/).
Opal was twelve years old when that horrific event occurred on June 19, 1939. She never talked about it, but neither did she forget it. “The fact that it happened on the 19th day of June has spurred me to make people understand that Juneteenth is not just a festival,” she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2023 (Bella).
Lee garnered national attention in 2016 when she began her symbolic walk of 1,400 miles from her Fort Worth home to Washington, D.C., hoping to ask President Obama to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Her efforts paid off in 2021, when President Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery ((Bella).
Opal learned that the property where her home had been 84 years ago was owned by Trinity Habitat for Humanity. She called the chief executive director, Gage Yager, and asked if she could buy that lot. He told her, “Well, Opal, we won’t sell it to you. We’ll give it to you.”
On the morning of March 21, 2024, Opal helped cut the first piece of lumber that Habitat for Humanity will use to build her a house there. The plans are for it to be finished this Juneteenth (Bella).
The news overwhelmed the 97-year-old Lee. “I could have done a holy dance, I tell you,” she said to WFAA-TV (Bella).
After 84 years, justice finally came to pass, because “Nevertheless, she persisted.” Thank you, Opal Lee!
In my view, we will never correct our past mistakes if teachers are not allowed to teach about them. If our libraries cannot put books on their shelves that tell us these inspirational stories, they risk being forgotten forever. That would be a terrible loss for all of humanity.