Opal Lee, 90, is an activist who is fighting for Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating when the last American slaves were freed in Texas, to be made a national holiday, Fox 4 News reports.
Lee is walking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., and needs 100,000 signatures on an online petition at the White House website.
She hopes to meet with President Barack Obama and deliver the petition to him.
"I would just tell him how much I appreciate what he has gone through," she said about the possibility of meeting the president. "The man has worked with his hands tied behind him. He has tried to do what needed to be done, and he has had obstacle after obstacle to try to hold him down, but he hasn't given up. Why should we?"
According to the CW 33, Lee plans to walk 10 miles per day and hopes to get to D.C. by December.
"If Juneteenth becomes a holiday, look what we've achieved," she said. "If we can achieve this, we can achieve some other things because we did it together, not just one person."
Read more at the CW 33 and Fox 4 News.