Homecoming at Lebanon Baptist Church, Rt. 17, Saluda promises to be exciting this year. Pastor Theresa Sutherlin has announced that nationally-noted civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the keynote address at 2 p.m. on Sunday and nationally-recognized gospel evangelist Dorothy Norwood will perform at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton

Praised by President Barack Obama as "the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden" and by former President George W. Bush for his interest in children’s education, said a press release, Sharpton has been crusading for civil rights since the age of 13, when he was appointed the youth director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket in New York by Jesse Jackson and William Jones.

At 16, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement to push for more voter registration, job training programs, and cultural awareness, and in 1991, he founded the National Acti...