Viola Davis shares photo of childhood home on former slave plantation in St. Matthews
The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965. It is the birthplace of my story. Today on my 55th year of life….I own it….all of it.
“May you live long enough to know why you were born.”
-Cherokee Birth Blessing- pic.twitter.com/CatJK405BL— Viola Davis (@violadavis) August 11, 2020
CALHOUN COUNTY, S.C. (WOLO) – Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis tweeted out her childhood home on a former slave plantation in St. Matthews Tuesday.
In a tweet and on an Instagram post on her 55th birthday, Davis called her home on the Singleton Plantation “the birthplace of my story.”
She also said, “I own it… all of it” in her post.
However, Davis later clarified her post by saying, “I do not ‘own’ above house, I ‘own’ my STORY!! Too abstract I guess?”
In a 2016 interview with Jess Cagle, editorial director for Entertainment Weekly and PEOPLE, she shared more about her grandmother’s house where she was born.
Davis said her family moved out of the house shortly after her birth, but recalled her relatives’ living conditions in the house, which had “no running water. No bathrooms. It’s just only an outhouse.”
But Davis says despite the poor environment, there was nothing but joy and celebration when she was born.
She has won an Oscar, an Emmy and two Tony awards for her acting work.
