Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Opal Lee, the 96-year-old Texan whose efforts helped make Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States, became the second Black person whose portrait will hang in the Senate chamber of the state Capitol. Lawmakers on Wednesday gave a lengthy standing ovation to Lee, who two years ago stood next to President Joe Biden as Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983. She had organized walks in cities across the country as part of her campaign to have June 19 given federal status. Lee was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Her painting will join those of other celebrated Texas figures on the walls of the 135-year-old Capitol, where nearly a dozen Confederate markers remain in and around the building. Lee, who is from Fort Worth and often called the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” joins the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan as the only two Black Texans to have portraits in the Senate chamber. “Change somebody’s mind, because minds can be changed,” Lee told reporters. “If people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love, and it is up to you to do it.” Lee said she wanted “to do a whole dance” the moment she saw the portrait, which was painted by Texas artist Jess Coleman. “It was beautiful,” she said. “I didn’t know I looked that good.”
■ An effort to digitize more than 200 Boston Pops radio broadcasts conducted by John Williams from 1979 to 1991 is almost complete, the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced Wednesday, Williams’ 91st birthday. The project to preserve 233 live radio broadcasts that were recorded on 256 one-quarter-inch reel-to-reel analog tapes that were becoming increasingly fragile and in danger of chemical deterioration was funded with $24,000 in grants from the Grammy Museum and the Council on Library and Information Resource. The recordings chronicle Williams’ work with guest performers from a broad spectrum of the entertainment industry: classical artists like Yo-Yo Ma and James Galway; popular stars such as Joan Baez and Ray Charles; Broadway stars like Carol Channing and Joel Grey; jazz musicians including Wynton Marsalis and Sarah Vaughan; and comedic talents such as Victor Borge. The concerts were originally broadcast locally and then distributed to radio stations nationwide. Some feature the first concert arrangements of the Oscarand Grammy-winning Williams’ film scores. The recordings will be searchable through the orchestra’s performance history search engine and the public can request free access to the audio streams starting June 15.