Journalist and podcast producer Angélique Roché partnered with up-and-coming cartoonists Alvin Epps, Millicent Monroe, and Bex Glendining to bring to life First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth (Oni, Feb.), a kaleidoscopic graphic biography of educator and activist Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” This “uplifting” work “shines an overdue spotlight on a modern-day hero," per PW’s review. The narrative is framed via Lee’s memories as she prepares for a white house visit with President Biden to celebrate the recently federally recognized holiday—and winds back through history, as well as Lee’s symbolic 1,400-mile walk in 2016 that helped bring awareness to her campaign for Juneteenth.

PW talked with Roché about making her graphic nonfiction debut, and why it’s essential to make history accessible to all kinds of readers.

How did you approach creating the overall narrative?

That first week we brought two cameramen, producer, me, and we worked like it was a production schedule. Where do you begin with a century of life? Do we tell this from her great grandmother's perspective, who was a runaway slave? Do we tell this from starting in Louisiana, where her grandfather is actually from—he piled up his children he had had in a horse drawn wagon and came to Texarkana. I don’t believe I was prepared for how incredibly fun and wonderful her story would be. Because Miss Opal would say, ‘when I was younger,’ and she’d mean 30. She didn't mean 12. It took adjusting on what does ‘younger’ meant to a person who retired in the 1970s and has still been full steam ahead ever since.

What guided your decision to braid history and biography together?

You know, with the civil rights movement, we seldom think about people doing the work every day to ensure that the community continues to be strong. That's just as important, though we so seldomly see it juxtaposed against the larger narrative that has been amplified. It was important to me to show that Miss Opal had always been there.

What aspect of Opal Lee’s personality were you most determined to capture?

All of it! I wish I could just bottle her up and give her to everybody. She knows who she is. She doesn’t see an impossible. She's always been the person taking care of people. I wanted to show her to be tenacious and feisty and sassy and confident. Because so many times the voices of people of color, and particularly women of color, are stolen from them. I wanted that love, care, insatiable thirst for knowledge, but also that ultimate educator, to exist. I wanted to make sure people understood that this type of personality is 100 years in the making.

How did Opal Lee respond to the idea of a graphic novel about her life?

Miss Opal is determined to meet people where they are. She wants the story to be told in mediums where people can be inspired to make a change without asking for permission. She wants anybody who would find this more accessible, to be able to access the story in the way that they can process and understand it.

Juneteenth has only recently been recognized nationally since 2021. Why was this book important to publish now, as Opal Lee approaches her 100th year birthday?

Her 100 years is arriving at 160 years from the first celebration of Juneteenth, and at a time where it doesn’t hurt reminding people that we are not so far removed from our past, but also how our past continues to shape our present. It's serendipitous, but it is also fueled by my desire to ensure that Miss Opal and her family were able to hold this book in their hands. They've been with us every step of the way.

It has been a privilege and an honor to be able to tell this story, not just because Opal Lee is so incredible, but because she's human. It was very important that folks could see this book and feel like they too, could make a difference.