BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
It’s Juneteenth, which is the official federal holiday commemorating the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas at the end of the Civil War. This is the fifth year the United States has recognized it as a federal holiday, and seeing how racial justice and economic justice are deeply intertwined, we felt it was important to give this day the proper attention it deserves.
Black Americans still face systemic discrimination in just about every facet of their lives—from the healthcare system, law enforcement, the courts, the education system, and more. There are a number of reasons why America’s “racial wealth gap” is so massive. Redlining, blockbusting, excluding Black veterans from the post-WWII GI Bill, and Black people being swindled into predatory subprime mortgages that ultimately created the 2008 financial crisis are all frequently cited as major contributors. This is what we mean when we say white supremacy and the lasting impacts of slavery still harm our society, economy, and democracy today.
If you’re looking for resources to better understand how this is the case, here’s what we’d recommend reading:
Our Closer Look from June 2025 about how the sub-minimum wage (also known as the tipped minimum wage) is a vestige from slavery. After the Civil War, business owners who still wanted to exploit formerly enslaved Black people brought the idea of tipping over from Europe to America, but with a financial twist to it: they decided that tips would replace wages entirely for Black workers.
Our Closer Look from February 2026 about how early labor laws excluded Black Americans. The targeted exclusion of occupations that mainly employed Black people from minimum wage and Social Security provisions during the New Deal means that not only do Black families still hold less generational wealth, but there remains to this day a wage gap based on race, to say nothing of the wage gap when considering both race and gender.
Our pals at ITEP wrote this insightful piece about how one of the most powerful drivers of that inequity is our tax system. As they eloquently put it: “Juneteenth is often described as a celebration of delayed justice. But it should also be a reminder that justice delayed is justice denied. The inequities embedded in our tax system will not correct themselves. They require intentional action, guided by a clear understanding of who benefits and who bears the cost. If we are serious about honoring the legacy of Juneteenth, we must move beyond commemoration to transformation. That means building a tax system and an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.”
“Spread the power” is our core third principle here at Patriotic Millionaires. That means understanding how orchestrated attacks on voting rights are becoming commonplace across the country. In the past two decades, we’ve witnessed the Supreme Court of the United States wipe out a generation of work by civil rights activists. See this from the Brennan Center: The Supreme Court’s Failure to Protect Voting Rights. There is a tie between attacks on voting rights and it disproportionately harming Black Americans and other racial minorities, as well as young and elderly voters, people with lower incomes, and people with disabilities.
When we eliminate barriers to financial and political freedom, we take a step forward in the fights for both economic justice and racial justice. The same can be said for just about every aspect of the economy, from the tax code to labor laws to antitrust laws and more. We hope you use this federal holiday as an opportunity to better understand how our movement toward a stronger economy and country is intrinsically connected with advancing racial justice.
Opal Lee, the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," was instrumental in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday in 2021.
A lifelong educator in Fort Worth, Texas, she dedicated her career to shaping young minds and serving her community.
A traumatic 1939 Juneteenth experience—when her family's home was burned—helped inspire her lifelong commitment to justice and advocacy.
At age 89, Opal Lee made a symbolic walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., building on the annual 2.5-mile walks she began years earlier to advocate for federal recognition of Juneteenth.
Her legacy reflects the power of resilience, education, and grassroots activism to create lasting social change.
Opal Lee attends the 2021 Forbes x Know Your Value 50 Over 50 Summit on December 15, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage)
Who is Opal Lee?
Opal Lee, the 'Grandmother of Juneteenth,' is a woman of remarkable vision, unshakable determination and boundless compassion. The legacy created by her resilience echoes throughout the nation, reminding us all that one person's unwavering commitment to justice can change the course of history. Her journey stands as a beacon of hope and a call to action for generations to come.
Born in Marshall, Texas, in 1926, Opal Lee credits her superb work ethic to her mother. Lee graduated from high school at the age of 16 and went on to further her education at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, where she earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education. In 1960, she returned to the classroom to achieve her master's degree in counseling and guidance from North Texas University.
A Career Rooted in Education and Community
For 24 years, she worked with children in the Fort Worth Independent School District as a schoolteacher and a counselor. She poured into the lives of children in the area and saw firsthand the many different walks of life and struggles her community went through. It was here that Lee truly understood what it meant to love your neighbor.
"As a lifelong educator, I know that what we teach today shapes tomorrow," Lee said. "So if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love."
As a lifelong educator, I know that what we teach today shapes tomorrow. So if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love. Opal Lee, retired educator and activist known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth
A Defining Moment: The 1939 Juneteenth Tragedy
Like many, Lee's celebrations of Juneteenth as a child were private celebrations with family and friends enjoying each other's company, good food and the remembrance of a pivotal moment in our nation's history.
That was until June 19, 1939, when the beloved holiday had to share a day of terror with the Lee family, when a mob burned their house down during their celebrations. That became a day she and her family would never forget; however, it wasn't a day that silenced her.
Retired teacher and activist Opal Lee attends the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
From Educator to Activist
After Lee's retirement in 1977, she shifted her focus to bettering her community. She helped advocate for those experiencing poverty and homelessness in the community, and she became a founding member of the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society and began her role of planning Juneteenth celebrations for her community. Thus began the chain of events that would lead to a very important moment in United States history.
"I don't consider myself a civil rights person. I consider myself your grandma and everybody else's grandma, and I expect you to listen when I tell you something," Lee said.
I don't consider myself a civil rights person. I consider myself your grandma and everybody else's grandma, and I expect you to listen when I tell you something. Opal Lee, retired educator and activist known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth
Activist and retired educator Opal Lee, 94, holds hands with Vice President Kamala Harris as U.S. President Joe Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law in 2021. (Getty Images)
The Movement to Make Juneteenth a National Holiday
In 2016, at the age of 89, Lee started her campaign to call for Juneteenth's recognition as a national holiday. She started her journey, walking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. Each day, she walked 2.5 miles to symbolize the two and a half years enslaved people in Texas waited to learn they had been freed after the Emancipation Proclamation.
She was strong and resilient in her efforts, and along the way, she gathered a petition with 1.5 million signatures to present to Congress. After a lifetime of work and 154 years after the good news reached Galveston, Texas, Lee watched as President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth Independence Day Act on June 27, 2021.
Why Opal Lee’s Story Still Matters Today
Lee shows us that change is possible at any age, and that the power of history lies not just in remembrance but in action. Her voice, her footsteps and her love for community forged a path toward national recognition and healing. In recognition of her impact, she has received several honorary doctorates, including from Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University and Wiley University. Her life reminds us that even the deepest pain can be transformed into purpose, and that the fight for freedom, dignity and truth must continue with every generation.
The artwork in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, shows Judge arriving in the city after her journey from Philadelphia in May 1796. She remained a free woman until her death in 1848
No likenesses of Ona Judge survive, so the team used artificial intelligence to generate a likeness informed by a description of her in a runaway ad. Artist Manuel Ramirez then refined the depiction. Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
On May 21, 1796, George Washington and his family sat down for dinner at the President’s House in Philadelphia, enjoying one of their last meals in the city before returning to Mount Vernon for the summer. As the Washingtons dined, an enslaved woman named Ona Judge made her escape, slipping out of the mansion to freedom.
“Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn’t know where,” Judge recalled in an 1845 interview. “For I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I never should get my liberty.”
After Judge fled, she made her way north, securing passage on a ship bound for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Despite Washington’s unyielding efforts to track her down, Judge evaded capture, dying in 1848 as a free woman. Two centuries later, Judge’s harrowing account of her escape offers a rare glimpse into the challenges faced by fugitives from slavery in the nascent United States. Her story is also of note for its connection to the nation’s first commander in chief, a man who privately questioned the institution of slavery yet still owned 123 men, women and children.
A crowd poses in front of the new Ona Judge mural during the May 23 unveiling ceremony. Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
Last week, just over 230 years after Judge’s self-emancipation from slavery, the nonprofit Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire unveiled a mural in Portsmouth that honors her memory. Created by artist Manuel Ramirez, the work shows Judge soon after her arrival on the city’s waterfront, clad in a green dress and a straw bonnet.
“As we unveil this mural, we unveil memory, we unveil history, we unveil the truth,” JerriAnne Boggis, the nonprofit’s executive director, said at the May 23 ceremony, per Seacoast Online’s Jane Murphy. “We unveil the courage of a young woman who chose freedom despite all the odds. This mural ensures that Ona’s story will no longer remain hidden.”
No known images of Judge survive today, so the team used artificial intelligence to generate a likeness informed by a description in a runaway ad. Published by a Philadelphia newspaper three days after Judge’s escape, the notice stated that she was “a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy black hair. She is of middle stature, slender and delicately formed, about 20 years of age.”
Ramirez filled in the details from there, drawing on research conducted by the nonprofit’s staff to ensure historical accuracy in the 13-by-15-foot scene. As historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar, author of the 2017 book Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, tells the Boston Globe’s Steven Porter, the mural is an “authentic” representation of its subject based on the available information. The nonprofit, for its part, notes, “Many artists have imagined what she might have looked like, and ours is yet another interpretation.”
Who was Ona Judge?
The daughter of an enslaved seamstress and a white tailor, Judge was born at Mount Vernon around 1774. She started working as Martha Washington’s lady’s maid at age 10, tending to her mistress’ needs by mending her clothing, helping her bathe and dress, and organizing her belongings.
When Washington was elected president in 1789, Judge was one of seven enslaved people selected to accompany the family to their new home in New York. The next year, when the family relocated to Philadelphia, Judge went with them. (The cornerstone for the White House was laid in 1792; John Adams, the nation’s second president, was the first commander in chief to take up residence in the Washington, D.C. mansion.)
As the first lady’s “preferred” maid, Judge “received a fancier wardrobe than most enslaved people,” historianLindsay M. Chervinsky wrote in a 2019 essay for the White House Historical Association. Her clothing was viewed “as an extension of Martha’s status,” projecting the family’s wealth and privilege to other Philadelphians.
In 1780, Pennsylvania had passed an act that gradually abolished slavery in the state. Under the terms of this law, adults enslaved by long-term visitors to Pennsylvania would be automatically freed if they remained in the state for more than six months.
Washington had no intention of abiding by this provision, so he found a legal loophole: moving the individuals he enslaved out of Pennsylvania each time the deadline approached. “In essence,” Dunbar wrote for the New York Timesin 2015, the president “reset the clock,” adopting “a canny strategy that would protect his property and allow him to avoid public scrutiny.”
Ona Judge’s escape from slavery
Washington genuinely believed that the people he enslaved “were better served and cared for in his possession,” as Dunbar explains in Never Caught. But he was also aware of the risks posed by exposing these men and women to Philadelphia’s vibrant free Black community. “The idea of freedom might be too great a temptation for them to resist,” Washington wrote in a 1791 letter.
Judge reached this point of no return after learning that the Washingtons intended to bequeath her to Elizabeth Parke Custis, Martha’s granddaughter, as a wedding gift. According to Never Caught, Custis was infamous for “her stubbornness and complete disregard for protocol”—qualities that would likely make her a difficult mistress. As the Granite Freeman newspaper reported in 1845, Judge had two main reasons for fleeing when she did: First, she simply “wanted to be free,” and second (in reference to Custis), “she was determined never to be her slave.”
To plan her escape, Judge enlisted the help of the city’s free Black community, although she never revealed these individuals’ identities. The 1845 article is scant on details, skipping ahead to her journey to Portsmouth on a ship commanded by John Bowles, whose name Judge kept secret until his death.
Washington quickly jumped into action after noticing Judge’s absence. The runaway ad placed by the president’s steward expressed indignation at her decision to flee, noting, “As there was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone or, fully, what her design is.” The steward correctly speculated that Judge would try to travel north “by water,” adding that she would probably “attempt to pass for a free woman and has, it is said, wherewithal to pay her passage.” In exchange for Judge’s return, the Washingtons offered a $10 reward.
Ona Judge’s life in New Hampshire
In Portsmouth, Judge found lodging and employment as a domestic laborer. Compared with her duties as a lady’s maid, this work would have been much more demanding. As Dunbar writes in Never Caught, “That Judge elected to become a domestic, that she chose to endure physically punishing work in New Hampshire, rather than remain a slave, says everything we need to know about how much she valued freedom.”
After the ad failed to lead him to Judge, Washington resorted to other strategies. He learned of Judge’s location from a senator’s daughter who’d spotted the escapee in Portsmouth, then recruited a local customs collector to attempt to negotiate with her on his behalf. As he wrote in an October 1796 letter to Washington, Judge maintained that she would “rather suffer death than return to slavery and [be] liable to be sold or given to any other persons.”
Judge said she would, however, consider returning to the family’s service if the president would agree to her eventual emancipation. (Dunbar argues that Judge simply told the man whatever he wanted to hear, with no intention of keeping such promises.) When the customs collector relayed these stipulations, Washington wrote:
To enter into such a compromise, as she suggested to you, is totally inadmissable, for reasons that must strike at first view: For however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of people (if the latter was in itself practicable at this moment), it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference.
The president urged the customs collector to persist in his efforts to re-enslave Judge, though he cautioned the man to take care to avoid inciting anger among abolitionists in the city. Whether the negotiator followed through on Washington’s request is unclear, but Judge remained a free woman. In early 1797, she married a free Black sailor named Jack Staines. Together, they had three children. Staines died in 1803. Judge outlived both of her daughters, but her son’s fate is unknown.
Washington’s last recorded attempt to recapture Judge took place in August 1799, four months before his death at age 67. The former commander in chief askedBurwell Bassett Jr., Martha’s nephew, to persuade Judge to return. She declined, telling him, “I am free now and choose to remain so.” When Bassett failed to achieve his goal through persuasion, he decided to resort to force. Luckily for Judge, the governor of New Hampshire caught wind of this plan and distracted Bassett while she and her child fled to safety at a free woman’s home outside of the city.
As Judge later recalled, Washington’s family “never troubled me anymore” after his death in December 1799. In his will, the president outlined provisions for the 123 people he enslaved to be freed upon his wife’s death. (Judge wasn’t included in this group, as she was technically the property of the Custis estate, which Martha had a one-third share in through her first husband.) Martha freed these individuals early, not out of principle, but rather because “she did not feel as though her life was safe in their hands, many of whom would be told that it was [in] their interest to get rid of her,” fellow first lady Abigail Adams wrote in a letter.
Judge spent the rest of her life in New Hampshire, still considered a fugitive under the law. She only spoke publicly about her escape from slavery in her later years. Despite the difficulties she’d faced, Judge never regretted her decision to leave the first family. Asked “if she was not sorry she left Washington, as she has labored so much harder since than before,” according to the 1845 interview, she replied, “No, I am free, and have, I trust, been made a child of God by the means.”
Editor's Note, May 29, 2026: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of JerriAnne Boggis.
Did you know? Harry and George Washington
Harry, a Black man enslaved by Washington, fled from Mount Vernon twice, first in 1771 and again in early 1776.
After making his escape, Harry enlisted in the British Army, responding to a proclamation by Virginia’s royal governor that offered enslaved people freedom in exchange for joining the crown’s cause.
Meilan Solly is a senior associate digital editor at Smithsonian magazine, where she oversees the online history section. Solly's specialties are Tudor England, medieval Europe and World War II.
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