Opal Lee, best known for her campaign to establish Juneteenth as a national holiday, will receive an honorary doctorate from SMU. The “Grandmother of Juneteenth” successfully lobbied to ...

That was the case until nearly 100 years later, on June 19, 1863, or what is now recognized as Juneteenth. While I grew up in the American South, I never learned about Juneteenth in school.

Juneteenth is America's newest federal holiday. The day commemorates the freedom of enslaved African Americans in the United States. But it took over 150 years to get to this point. While the ...