The Wallace Center welcomed some 70 persons for fellowship, games and music on June 15, 2024. It was our second Juneteenth for Wallace descendants in Harpersville. Juneteenth commemorates June 18, 1865 when a union general arrived to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, months after the Civil War. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

The Power of Truthful Narratives, a panel about confronting our histories, will be held from 3:30 -5:00  on May 4. It features Elijah Gaddis, Hollifield Associate Professor of Southern History at Auburn University, Albert “Peter” Datcher, local genealogist and community historian and Kathryn R. King, Co-Founder of The Montevallo Legacy Project, with Joe McGill of the Slave Dwelling Project following with a response.

It is followed by a dinner with many vegetables (no meat), chicken and dessert at 6 pm. This leads into the fireside chat with Joe MGill and overnight stay.

Each event stands on its own.

The afternoon begins with a panel “The Power of Truthful Narratives”. A dinner, fireside chat and house overnight follows.

“The Power of Truthful Narratives”, a panel from 3:30 -5:00 features Elijah Gaddis, Hollifield Associate Professor of Southern History at Auburn University, Albert “Peter” Datcher, local genealogist and community historian and Kathryn R. King, Co-Founder of The Montevallo Legacy Project, with Joe McGill of the Slave Dwelling Project following with a response. A Southern dinner, including lots of vegetables (no meat) and chicken, begins at 5:30. It is followed by a conversation around our fire pit at 7:00 pm led by McGill and an overnight stay.

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The dedication of With Love, For Grief on February 24, 2024 included a short artist talk by artist Elizabeth M. Webb about the conceptualization of the sculpture and the process of creation (see Columns Project). Descendant Peter Datcher spoke about the importance to the Black Wallace descendants of honoring their ancestors and descendant Henry Smith gave a pointed presentation about Florida’s efforts to whitewash the horrors of enslavement. Poet Salaam Green who had envisioned and , with Webb, carried out healing conversations with the descendants during the community-based project read her poem For Grief, memorializing Grief Wallace who was enslaved on the plantation. She then poured water with dissolvable papers on which audience members had written notes to the enslaved into the ground on each column as a libation. Thanks to the Alabama State Council on the Arts for their funding for this project.

Black and white Wallace descendants will gather the weekend of October 7 for their fourth homecoming at the Wallace House and cemetery. They will gather at the cemetery and adjourn to the House for discussion and a meal. Elizabeth Webb and Salaam Green will engage descendants in inscribing the names of their enslaved ancestors for the community columns sculpture project. At 4:30 pm, the event will open to others with a Blues concert with Gary Edmonds (guitar and vocals), Caldwell Mackin (bass), and Dave Crenshaw (drums). The descendant homecoming will come to a close at the mother church, Scott’s Grove MIssionary Baptist Church, on Sunday morning. Blues tickets are available here.

Wideman-Davis Dance returned August 25-26 to perform Migratuse Ataraxia, the dance first at the Wallace House in 2020. About 80 persons attended over the two evenings. It was the hottest it has been all summer in Alabama, but some said it made them feel the reality of the house and times.

A roomful of over 40 descendants and guests participated in poet Salaam Green’s and artist Elizabeth M. Webb conversation about the community co-created sculpture using two columns saved from the Wallace House preservation and the role of poetry in the process. Salaam Green brought the group together invoking the presence of the ancestors and descendants wrote their messages to them on paper that dissolved in water. The water containing the no-longer-visible messages was then poured into the ground to nurture a cedar tree that had seen generations of Wallaces.

Over 40 people attended Joe McGill’s presentation on May 20, 2023, with slightly fewer enjoying the soul food dinner created by chef Tiawana Ware. Inspired by her grandmother’s cooking, she served chicken, collard greens, fried corn, yams, field peas and macaroni and cheese, with apple cobbler for dessert. Fifteen persons participated in the conversation circle with Joe McGill, sharing their life experiences and feelings, and then slept overnight in the Wallace House. Joe McGill will return in 2024 to the Wallace House.

Student poets from the Vincent 7th grade middle school read their persona poems based on the history of the Wallace House to friends and family on May 11, 2023. They are pictured here with poet Salaam Green, a teaching writer for the Alabama Writers’ Forum, and their English teacher, Erica Davis. They had participated in Land as Persona: Many Paths to the Present, a collaboration between the Alabama Writers’ Forum and Klein Arts & Culture. Klein Arts & Culture Board Members and others visited the class to speak about time periods and persons associated with the Wallace House and Harpersville.

A Conversation on Reckoning at Ramsay High School, on February 23, 2023 in the school auditorium in Birmingham, featured a conversation between Ramsay graduates, Dr. Marcia Herman-Giddens, author of the memoir Unloose My Heart, and Dr. Richard Walker, the Birmingham physician who was the lone African-American student desegregating the school in 1963.  Herman-Giddens, who graduated in 1959, described her growing up in the Jim Crow South and her participation in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.  Walker spoke of his experiences at the school and its impact on his family life.  The moderator was Chuck Holmes, Executive Director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. The program was co-sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the Beth El Civil Rights Experience, and Klein Arts & Culture, with a book signing organized by Thank You Books.  The program was recorded and may be watched here.

On, January 21 2023, participants braved a cold and gray day for an informal gathering with Tony Bingham. Bingham discussed how he began conceptualizing Bearing Witness: Praise House Sun-Shadow , the first sculpture on the grounds of the Wallace House, through his conversations with the Wallace descendant community and explained how he chose the materials for his sculpture. The group gathered then walked to the Praise House to see how his conceptualization came to life.

KAC Board Member Albert “Peter” Datcher was honored by KAC and the Shelby County Historical Society at a reception on November 6 at the Wallace House that was attended by over 100 persons. The Shelby County Archives named their new Albert Baker Datcher Enslaved People’s Database for him in recognition of his contributions to local Black history. Visitors had the opportunity to the Wallace House and grounds, including Mr. Datcher’s history panels showing Wallace families associated with the House and artist Tony M. Bingham’s exhibit Vessels for Aunt Daisy and his recently dedicated sculpture Bearing Witness: Praise House - Sun Shadows.

The dedication of Bearing Witness: Praise House-Sun Shadows, a site specific sculpture, was held on October 15, 2022 at the Wallace House. The sculpture is the work of Tony M. Bingham, an African-American artist who is an Assistant Professor at Miles College, an HBCU in Birmingham. The work honors the spiritual practices of the enslaved ancestors and their descendants. The opening ceremony included a short talk by the artist and consecration by Darren Mitchell, Associate Minister of the Scotts Grove Baptist Church . A short film about this work is found here. Bingham has had two exhibits this year, Praise House - Sun Shadows + Four Vessels for Aunt Daisy at the Bolivar Art Gallery at the University of Kentucky and The Ancestral Light Series at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile. He may be contacted by email.

oung Wallace descendants read the names of family members buried at the cemetery during the homecoming remembrance program. About 50 people were present in this first post-covid Homecoming. Co-founder and President Theo Perkins led the activities of the day which included singing, prayer, and laying a wreath to honor ancestors in unmarked graves there and elsewhere and a gathering at the house for conversation and a shared meal.

On Saturday, July 30, 2023, over 40 persons, including local descendants and other stakeholders, came to the Wallace House to provide feedback on how to interpret the complicated history and legacy of the house and what the grounds should look like. Georgette Norman (founding director of the Rosa Parks Museum and storyteller), Elijah Gaddis (historian from Auburn), Tyler Jones (film maker), and Wayne Hester (architect) spoke before participants joined discussion groups to provide specific feedback to the plans presented. Their input will be valuable as we continue development of the site plan and interpretation. Funding for this program was provided by the Alabama Humanities Alliance.