Wallace Homecoming 2025

The Wallace Center hosted its sixth Homecoming for descendants of the Wallace place. On October 3-5, more than 130 Black and white descendants came together in kinship and love to honor the legacy of the people who were enslaved or worked the land as sharecroppers and to celebrate reconciliation. You can watch a filmed recap of the event here.

The festivities began on Friday afternoon at Peter Datcher’s History House where guests experienced the living history that Mr. Datcher has collected on behalf of Wallace descendants beginning in the antebellum period. Afterwards, descendants met at the Harpersville Community Center to register for the weekend and the opening reception. The group watched a film about one of the first Homecomings in a act of remembrance for the journey they have traveled.

Saturday started with a ceremony at the Wallace Family Cemetery to honor the lives of the people buried there and recount the story of how the Wallace Center was founded. Co-founders Theoangelo Perkins and Nell Gottlieb recounted the tale of they met at that exact spot and forged a relationship towards racial reconciliation. Young Wallace descendants called the names of the people who are buried in the cemetery and Birmingham Poet Laureate Salaam Green honored them with a poem. The day carried on with storytelling, laughter, and joy at the Wallace House.

The weekend concluded on Sunday at Scotts Grove Missionary Baptist Church — a church founded by formerly enslaved people immediately after emancipation.

We are thankful for another year of family and community. We’re rising!!

The Wallace Center Hosts the Sew Their Names Project at the Shelby County Arts Council