Dr. Opal Lee, widely known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” is being honored with her own Barbie doll as part of the brand’s Inspiring Women collection. At 99 years old, Lee’s legacy now joins a global lineup meant to introduce future generations to women who changed the course of history, often without applause or protection.
Lee’s story is not symbolic. It is a lived experience. Born in Marshall, Texas, in 1926, her life was shaped early by racial terror. On Juneteenth in 1939, when she was just a child, her family’s home was burned down by White rioters.
Decades later, that same child would become the woman who pushed America to finally acknowledge Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
The Barbie doll reflects Lee’s real-life activism rather than glamour. She is dressed in her signature Opal’s Walk for Freedom T-shirt, paired with white joggers and sneakers, a look familiar to anyone who has followed her tireless advocacy. The doll was designed by Carlyle Nuera, with packaging by Vicky Gevorkyan, and it reflects the image of a woman who spent years walking for justice rather than waiting for permission.
And she walked. Literally.
For years, Lee raised awareness through a symbolic two-and-a-half-mile walk, representing the two-and-a-half years it took for news of freedom to reach enslaved Black people in Texas after the Emancipation Proclamation. In 2016, well into her late 80s, she walked nearly 1,400 miles from Texas to Washington, D.C., stopping in cities along the way to tell America why Juneteenth mattered and why it could no longer be ignored.
In 2021, Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday, signed into law by President Joe Biden. Three years later, in May 2024, Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. That same month, she earned her eighth honorary doctorate.
Barbie’s tribute arrives as a cultural marker. It places a Black elder, an activist, and a truth-teller into a space often dominated by youth and fantasy. It tells young Black girls and boys that heroes don’t always wear capes. Sometimes they wear sneakers and keep walking when the country tells them to stop.
At 99 years old, Opal Lee is still making history.
