We Bought the Block: Building Legacy, Love and Community in South LA With Joe Ward-Wallace

Welcome to this special Father’s Day episode of the Mother’s Quest Podcast. Each year, I feature a father who is not only present for his own family but also answering a larger call to lead and serve in the world. This year, all signs pointed to me interviewing Joe Ward-Wallace!

Joe is a retired firefighter, impact entrepreneur, and community organizer, known and appreciated for co-founding South LA Cafe - a Black-owned, family-run coffee shop, market, and cultural center rooted in the heart of South Central Los Angeles. Alongside his wife Celia, and their two daughters, Joe has created more than a business, they’ve built a movement: one grounded in racial and economic justice, food access, and belonging.

Today, South LA Cafe spans multiple locations, and includes partnerships inside the Natural History Museum and the Hollywood Bowl, expanding their reach while staying rooted in purpose. At South LA Market, through their weekly grocery giveaway, they've distributed over 33,000 bags of food to thousands of community members, given with dignity and care.

Joe is also the Co-CEO and President of the South LA Community Foundation, which breaks the shackles of systemic oppression and inequality by creating, building, and empowering an equitable, healthy, and sustainable South Central community for all. He leads these initiatives with power and purpose and as I discovered in this conversation, a preparedness  for what might emerge, honed from his decades-long career as a firefighter.

We recorded this episode just after an epic snapshot moment, the very day that Joe and Celia received the keys to the first South LA Cafe building that they own. By purchasing the historic space from a fellow Black community member, they ensured the building would continue serving the community’s legacy, protected from the forces of gentrification.

In our conversation, Joe and I reflected on the deeper roots of that moment and what it meant to grow up with little material wealth, yet rich in love, culture, and resilience. He shared stories of his mother Vonnie, whose strength and spirit laid the foundation for his values, and how her legacy lives on through his commitment to service and entrepreneurship.

As I reflect on our conversation, what stays with me most is Joe’s unwavering commitment to both joy and justice and how he’s investing in community not to extract, but to build lineage. His story is one of saying yes to seeds of dreams before knowing exactly how they’d unfold and watching them grow into something even more beautiful than imagined. Through South LA Cafe, through his family, and through every act of service, Joe reminds us that legacy isn’t built on perfection, but on preparation, culture and connection.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• Joe’s childhood, his mother’s impact, and the story of how she  took a leap of faith to purchase their home in South Central 

• The transition Joe made from firefighter to community business leader 

• Lessons in work ethic, preparation, and grit passed down to and from his daughters

• The story behind founding South LA Cafe and how it has evolved since then

• The South LA Grocery Giveaway, a joyful cornerstone of their mission

• The importance of balancing hard work with intentional rest and self-investment

• The emotional power and legacy of owning their own building, a stand against gentrification, and the words from a celebratory post I asked Joe to read out loud (this brought me to tears!) 

•  The reflection that brought Joe to tears about how far he has come, which he jokingly referred to as his “Oprah” interview moment. 

About Joe Ward-Wallace

Joe Ward-Wallace is the Co-Founder of South LA Cafe is a Black-owned, family-owned, community coffee shop, market, and cultural center located in the heart of South Central Los Angeles. The South LA Cafe team exists to serve the community, fight racial and economic inequality, and provide equal access to food. Their mission is to provide a safe space for local residents as well as equal access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.

Additionally, he is the Co-CEO & President of the South LA Community Foundation, a 501c3 non profit organization which aims to break the shackles of systemic oppression and inequality by creating, building, and empowering an equitable, healthy, and sustainable South Central community for all.

Mr. Ward-Wallace has over three decades experience in business and also helps to lead The Ward-Wallace Group, Coaching and Consulting Firm which supports entrepreneurs, leaders, activists, and athletes to create, launch, and scale world-changing ideas and is professional keynote speaker. 

Learn more about his work at www.southlacafe.com.

Connect with Joe

• Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/joe.ward.wallace/

• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-ward-wallace-11ba6739

• South LA Cafe Website | https://southlacafe.myshopify.com/

• Joe and Celia's podcast: “In the Mix with Celia and Joe”

• The Legacy of Vonnie, Joe’s mother

This Episode’s Challenge:

Joe challenges each of us to help just one neighbor. Ask them what they need, and then do it. Maybe it’s running an errand, checking in with a meal, or simply being present and available. Joe reminded me that this simple act is what sparked South LA Cafe’s grocery giveaway, something that has now served thousands and become the heartbeat of his community work. He emphasized that this small act, when done collectively, can help rebuild a sense of connection and community.

Related Episodes or Resources Mentioned in the Episode: 

• Ep 109: Turning Toward One Another with Rabbi Sharon Brous

• Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women

• A New Way of Life Reentry Program

• The Instagram Post Joe Read titled “We Bought the Block”  

• The Legacy of Vonnie, Joe’s mother

 

This Episode is Dedicated by Eric Mann

With financial support from Lindsay Pera

“This is Eric Mann, co-director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, a civil rights group in South Central L.A. I am here in praise of Joe Ward-Wallace and the magnificent new 48th Street South L.A. Café. Joe is my son-in-law but he calls me dad and I call him son. He and my daughter, Celia Ward-Wallace, are a powerful team for social justice.

Joe begins and ends as a Black Man in South Central Los Angeles. From that clear and solid identity he approaches all problems from the interests of the Black and South Central communities—and from there to all humanity. He has suffered insults and injuries from a racially hostile society and yet fights back mainly through his creative expression and drive for innovation. He just keeps inventing stuff. 

The story of how Joe and Celia were able to purchase Mel’s Diner, an iconic South-Central landmark, rescue it from the gentrifiers, and keep it in the Black community is a story of miracles. As Joe says, The 48th Street South L.A. Café is a sacred container that reclaimed the land of our ancestors. Thank God there was a Black family able to weather market pressure to find dedicated Black buyers. Let’s all work to help fund future adventures in that tradition. As there is some sense of despair today, the answer can only take place through building and expanding organizations—the Labor/Community Strategy Center, South LA Café, and Mother’s Quest. And great organizations still need great organizers—and Joe Ward Wallace is in the NBA finals.”

About the Labor/Community Strategy Center

The Labor/Community Strategy Center (www.thestrategycenter.org) is a civil rights and climate justice organization in South Central LA addressing “the totality of urban life” Our Bus Riders Union served 500,000 LA Bus Riders 50 percent of whom are Latinx, 20 percent of whom are Black, and 60 percent are women, all very low-income. We also work in the Los Angeles public schools fighting for the rights of all students but especially the remaining 50,00 Black students when once there were 150,000. We also are part of the LACI South Central E-Bike Lending Library and our Black Folks on Bikes where we train low-income riders to use electric bikes for errands, mobility, and jobs. Finally, our Strategy and Soul Movement Center is the home of our Strategy and Soul bookstore and film theater.  We have served the LA Community since 1989 and now in South Central since 2015, are an integral part of the city-wide movement for social justice.

Our website is www.thestrategy.org, 

www.instagram.com/fightsoulcities/https://

www.facebook.com/FightForTheSoulOfTheCities/

 

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