Key Takeaways
- Tina Knowles and Kelly Rowland will captain birthFUND’s inaugural Third Ward Mile in Houston on Nov. 28, raising money and awareness for Black maternal health.
- Knowles called the effort “watering the roots that made us who we are,” while Rowland said every mother deserves to feel “safe, supported and seen.”
- The walk starts at 8 a.m. in Emancipation Park, with donations supporting community midwives and culturally responsive maternity care through birthFUND.
Tina Knowles and Kelly Rowland are returning to the Houston neighborhood where Destiny's Child got its start, and this time they’re fighting for something bigger than a hit record: Black mothers' lives.
The two are joining forces with birthFUND founder Elaine Welteroth for the inaugural Third Ward Mile on Nov. 28, bringing their influence back to the community that helped shape their careers. According to People, Knowles and Rowland will serve as team captains for the nonprofit's community walk, which aims to raise money and awareness for the Black maternal health crisis.
And for Knowles, this isn't just another celebrity charity appearance. It's personal.
"Third Ward helped me raise my girls," the 72-year-old told People. "Coming home to support the health of mothers and babies in this community is about watering the roots that made us who we are."
Those roots run deep. Long before Beyoncé collected Grammys and Destiny's Child dominated the charts, Third Ward was home to the Knowles family's growing business empire. Tina and her former husband, Mathew Knowles, operated Headliners Hair Salon, a successful Houston business that became part of the family's foundation long before the music industry came calling.
"For all of y'all that talk sh*t to think Beyoncé made me, no," he said. "We were millionaires when she was... four years old."
He credited the salon with making the couple their first million dollars in 1985, challenging the popular narrative that the family's financial success began with Beyoncé's music career.
Beyoncé has pushed back against that narrative herself. In a previous Vanity Fair interview, she made it clear that her childhood was far removed from the rags-to-riches story sometimes attached to her career.
"I didn't grow up poor. I went to private school; we had a very nice house, cars, a housekeeper," she said.
Now, the same neighborhood that helped nurture the Knowles family's success is at the center of Tina and Rowland's latest effort to give other families a stronger start.
Rowland, who met Beyoncé while growing up in Houston and later became one-third of Destiny's Child's best-known lineup, said the mission goes beyond simply raising money.
"Every mother deserves to feel safe, supported and seen when she brings life into the world, and I'm proud to stand with my birthFUND family to continue this movement for change," she told People. "It's such an honor to return to the community I came from to prove that we can come together to make change possible, one birth and one mile at a time."
Welteroth, meanwhile, isn't treating the maternal health crisis as an issue that can wait.
"This is a preventable crisis," she told People, emphasizing the need to expand access to community midwives and culturally responsive maternity care.
The Third Ward Mile kicks off at 8 a.m. at Houston's historic Emancipation Park, with participants ages six and older welcome. All race donations will benefit birthFUND's community initiatives, while the finish-line celebration will feature music, food, wellness activities, and local businesses.
