Written by Angélique Roché with art by Alvin Epps, Millicent Monroe, and Bex Glendining, First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth is an inspirational graphic biography of Lee, a former teacher and longtime community activist born in the segregated deep south, who worked for decades to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Besides documenting the role Lee played in establishing the holiday, the book is also a worthy history of Black life and political activism during and after the racist Jim Crow era.
In this 10-page excerpt, we meet 94 year-old Lee in 2021–the year the holiday was signed into law–and later flashback to the events surrounding the day in 1865 that belatedly marked a new era in the African American struggle for freedom. First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth by Angélique Roché with art by Alvin Epps, Millicent Monroe and Bex Glendining is out now from Oni Press.
