Opal Lee, grandmother of Juneteenth, returns home

Eighty-five years ago this week, Opal Lee's family home in Fort Worth was terrorized by a racist mob . Her family had to relocate to another home a few blocks away.

• At 97, Lee has returned home.

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Why it matters: Lee is a civil rights icon and a driving force behind the creation of the Juneteenth federal holiday.

• Grapevine-based HistoryMaker Homes and Dallas-based Texas Capital worked with Trinity Habitat for Humanity to build Lee a new house on the same lot her family was forced to abandon in 1939.

Driving the news: The house was completed within three months, in time for Juneteenth.

• Lee, who was living elsewhere in Fort Worth, received the house keys on Friday.

Lee received her house keys last week. The project was years in the making. Photo: Courtesy of Trinity Habitat for Humanity

The intrigue: The house is 1,300 square feet with three bedrooms, along with a built-in study.

• Texas Capital, HistoryMaker Homes and their vendors helped pay for the house and its furnishings, which Lee selected.
• Some Lee family mementos are embedded into the concrete of the house. They include a dress that belonged to Lee's mother.
• Volunteers stocked the fridge and pantry just days before Lee moved in.

Flashback: Lee said at the house's wall raising event in March that she planned to only bring her toothbrush when it was completed. She wanted a fresh start.

• She waved around her toothbrush at Friday's homecoming event, saying she couldn't wait to move in.

What she's saying: "I don't know how to describe it. It's wonderful, like a bit of heaven," she told Axios on Friday, rocking in a chair on her new porch.

The bottom line: "Give people their roses while they can still smell them," said Renee Toliver, a Fort Worth judge and Lee's granddaughter.

• "We wanted her to know how much she was loved."

What's next: Lee plans to invite her friends and neighbors to a housewarming party at the new house.

Meanwhile: She's working with local and national civil rights advocates to open a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.

• Habitat plans to build 100 houses over the next five years in her honor. The organization says it will donate 10% of the sponsorship money it collects for the homes toward the museum project.
• Texas Capital has offered to be the first sponsor.

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