Erect a Statue of Hope Honoring Dr. Opal Lee at the Lincoln Memorial

Before visitors ascend the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, let them first meet the Grandmother of Juneteenth—and the future Grandmother of America.

We are calling upon Congress, the National Park Service, and the appropriate federal authorities to establish a statue of Dr. Opal Lee on the landing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the Reflecting Pool.

For generations to come, Dr. Lee should stand among the first people to greet the millions of visitors who arrive at the National Mall each year.

Dr. Opal Lee is a lifelong educator, community advocate, and champion of human dignity. On Juneteenth in 1939, when she was twelve years old, a racist mob attacked her family’s home in Fort Worth, Texas, forcing her family to flee as the house was destroyed.

She survived an act of racial hatred—but she did not devote her life to hatred or revenge.

She chose love. She chose education. She chose service. She chose hope.

Dr. Lee has long reminded us that if people can be taught to hate, they can also be taught to love—and that it is left up to each of us to help make that transformation possible.

She carried that conviction through a lifetime of teaching, community service, humanitarian work, and peaceful activism. In her eighties and nineties, she walked mile after mile to bring national attention to Juneteenth. Her determination helped inspire the movement that ultimately led to Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday in 2021.

Dr. Lee is more than a witness to American history. She is one of its makers.

Her life connects generations of America’s unfinished struggle for freedom: from slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation, through Juneteenth, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, desegregation, the civil rights movement, affirmative action, and the continuing work to secure dignity and opportunity for every American.

She witnessed nearly the entirety of the twentieth century—and throughout it all, she kept moving forward.

That is why this location matters.

Inside the memorial sits Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and helped begin a new chapter in America’s long journey toward freedom. At the foot of the memorial should stand Dr. Opal Lee, a descendant of that struggle who helped carry the promise of emancipation forward and brought Juneteenth into the national consciousness.

Visitors would first encounter the grandmother who lived in the hope of freedom. They would then ascend the steps to meet the president who helped place that freedom within the law.

Lincoln represents the proclamation of freedom.

Dr. Opal Lee represents the generations who kept walking until that promise reached more of the American people.

Together, they would remind us that freedom is not secured by a single document, president, law, or generation. It must be protected, expanded, taught, and renewed.

We call this proposed monument the Statue of Hope.

It would honor a modern-day giant: an ordinary citizen whose extraordinary perseverance changed the nation. It would show every child who visits Washington that heroism does not always wear a uniform or hold elected office. Sometimes it looks like a teacher, a neighbor, a grandmother, or one determined woman walking mile after mile for what she knows is right.

Dr. Opal Lee is the Grandmother of Juneteenth today.

She can become the Grandmother of America tomorrow.

And through the Statue of Hope, she can remain an unbreakable symbol of love, freedom, perseverance, and possibility for generations to come.

Please sign this petition and join us in calling for a permanent Statue of Hope honoring Dr. Opal Lee at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.

Let America meet its Grandmother.