The famous Black actress posted on social media on Tuesday about the purchase of the house where she was born.
Davis posted a photo of the now dilapidated house in St. Louis. Matthews, South Carolina, on her verified Instagram account.
“The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965. It is the birthplace of my story,” reads the title. “Today at my 55th birthday …. I own it …. all of it.”
Davis added what she wrote was a “Cherokee Birth Blessing” that read “Live with you long enough to know why you were born.”
The “How To Get Away With Murder” star has spoken out about both representation in Hollywood and the need for Black creatives to own their own stories.
Davis said she “was not long since I was the fifth child, and that we moved soon after I was born.”
“I mean, I went back to try briefly, but still not aware of the history,” she said. “I think I read one slave story from someone who was on that plantation, which was terrible. 160 acres of land, and my grandfather was a sharecropper.”
The star said most of her uncles and nieces were also farmers because that was the only job available to them.
The house with bare bones without running water or indoors was special to Davis, she said, because she told how much love it contained.
“My grandmother’s house was a one-room loft,” Davis said. “I have a picture of it on my phone because I think it’s a beautiful image.”
Last year, she served as a keynote speaker at Barnard College in New York and told the graduating class that even if their experiences were traumatic, they “should own the property.”
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