Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025: Honoring Heritage, Bridging Cultures, and Building the Future
By lwilliams@semourbanvoices.com - August 27, 2025
SIKESTON, MO — From August 27 through September 1, 2025, the Sunset Addition neighborhood of Sikeston will once again come alive as descendants, families, and friends gather for the annual Return to Sunset celebration over Labor Day weekend. This the inaugural year Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025 gathering promises to be a uniquely powerful cultural event, uniting communities across Missouri’s Bootheel with international guests for a week of remembrance, storytelling, and heritage-building.
Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025
What began in September 2000 as a small-scale homecoming has since blossomed into a regional tradition known as Return to Sunset, celebrating the rich legacy of the Black community in Sikeston. At the heart of this year’s event is a shared mission: to unite descendants of Sunset Addition and invite people from historically Black communities and former sundown towns throughout the Bootheel region—including Scott, Mississippi, Dunklin, New Madrid, Stoddard, and Pemiscot Counties—for cultural exchange and collective reflection, Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025
A Legacy Rooted in Resilience
Just over a century ago, in July 1923, the Black community in Sikeston was allocated 15 acres on the west side of town. Despite being segregated from white Sikeston, the area known as Sunset Addition quickly became a vibrant, self-sustaining neighborhood. With its own churches, schools, grocery stores, theaters, clubs, and sports leagues, Sunset stood as a beacon of Black achievement and culture.
Now, more than 100 years later, the descendants of those early settlers are returning to honor the spirit of that community and ensure its legacy endures for future generations.
Cultural Exchange with Tobago, West Indies
This year’s event takes on a special international dimension with the participation of the Tobago West Indies Old Time Moriah Wedding Group, who will present their renowned “Old Time Wedding” cultural performance. This traditional wedding ceremony—complete with period dress, music, dance, and storytelling—offers audiences an immersive experience in Tobagonian heritage. It also serves as a poignant bridge between diasporic traditions, linking people of color and Caribbean matrimonial customs.
A highlight of the celebration will be a “Jumping the Broom”
ceremony, symbolizing the unbreakable bonds of love and resilience that have defined African-descended communities for generations. This performance holds deep cultural relevance for both Tobago and Sikeston, echoing the wedding customs of enslaved ancestors who, denied access to legal marriages, created their own enduring rituals of unity.
Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025 Activities that Celebrate the Past and Inspire the Future
The full week of events will blend ceremony, storytelling, and celebration. Highlights include:
- Groundbreaking Ceremony for the forthcoming Sunset Addition Museum, dedicated to preserving the stories and honoring the founding families of the neighborhood.
- Jumping the Broom Ceremony led by the Tobago delegation, connecting diasporic wedding traditions across continents.
- Community Motivation Gathering, bringing together citizens from Sikeston and surrounding towns to inspire youth and encourage the preservation of local Black history.
- Historical Softball Game, reviving stories of early Black athletes from the region—some of whom went on to play in professional leagues—while also acknowledging the challenges of sundown towns across the Bootheel.
- Sunset Cemetery Parade and Restoration Walk, organized by the Sunset Cemetery Restoration Committee, honoring ancestors with grave markers and shared family stories.
- Sunset Kite Festival, a colorful closing celebration designed to unite all communities through the universal joy of kite flying—a tradition with roots in both Black America and Caribbean cultures.
- Sunset Cemetery Parade and Restoration Walk, organized by the Sunset Cemetery Restoration Committee, honoring ancestors with grave markers and shared family stories.
- Sunset Kite Festival, a colorful closing celebration designed to unite all communities through the universal joy of kite flying—a tradition with roots in both Black America and Caribbean cultures.
A Personal Crossroads of Cultures
For one of the event’s organizers Rev. Valeria Stewart the 2025 celebration also represents a full personal circle. A native of Sikeston who moved to Tobago after marrying Arthur Stewart in 1998, she has spent decades building cultural bridges. She founded Tobago’s Flying Colors Kite Festival in 1999 and now brings that same spirit of unity and creativity back to her hometown. “It’s a deep honor to host the Moriah Wedding Group here in Sunset,” she shares. “We’re not just celebrating Black history—we’re living it, preserving it, and passing it forward.”
The Founders of Sunset N Da Bootheel, Rev Valerie Critten and Jesse Bonner want to thank Grace Community Center for hosting the SUNSET Kite Festival.
Sunset N Da Bootheel 2025 is more than a homecoming—it’s a living archive, a cultural revival, and a bold step toward future community-building rooted in pride and shared memory. The doors are open to all who wish to honor the past, celebrate the present, and shape a stronger, more connected future.
