Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Over the weekend of July 15, Virginia Tech's Dave Whitfield and Reyna Gilbert-Lowry joined 46 other student-athletes and administrators from the ACC as part of a delegation that traveled to Alabama for an educational initiative on social justice.
The initiative, conducted in collaboration with the Big Ten and Pac-12, is part of the ACC's commitment to supporting student-athletes through meaningful educational opportunities, including the area of social justice. The trip is part of the league's social-justice platform, ACC UNITE.
"Going to Selma and Montgomery simulated an experience during a time period where it wasn't easy being African American," said Whitfield, a distance runner for the Hokies. "Sitting in one of the first Baptist Churches in America, and hearing from numerous trailblazers during the 1960s, made me realize the racism experienced by African Americans was only a lifetime away."
The social justice experience began Friday night in Montgomery with Sheyann Webb-Christburg – author and an in-person eyewitness of the original Bloody Sunday attack – serving as the keynote speaker. The trip continued Saturday in Selma at the First Baptist Church, the headquarters for the Dallas County Voters League, which was the student nonviolent coordination committee. The church earned the name, "The Movement Church," and is where hundreds of students began their days' long journey from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. The trip continued with a march across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge before the group returned to Montgomery to visit a series of landmarks, museums, and learning centers.
"This was such a unique and transformative opportunity for student-athletes to be able to learn about the people and places that were pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement," said Gilbert-Lowry, who serves as Senior Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator for the Hokies. "Young people were instrumental in the movement and this experience was a reminder of the power student-athletes possess when they use their voices to impact change."
In Montgomery, the group visited the Interpretive Center at Alabama State University, a historically black college or university (HBCU), to learn more about the profound impact that students had on the civil rights movement. The group also spent time at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and the award-winning Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Legacy Museum, which provides a comprehensive overview of America's history of racial injustice – from enslavement to mass incarceration.
On Saturday evening, EJI Legacy Museum founder and social justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson addressed the group. Following his address, campus diversity, equity, and inclusion directors led small group debrief sessions with the student-athletes to discuss the Selma to Montgomery experience.
"In addition to traveling to numerous historic museums in the area, being able to connect with ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 student athletes was the highlight of the trip," Whitfield pointed out. "Through mutual interest and the commonalities shared through exemplified leadership, I've made connections and friendships that'll last a lifetime."
ACC UNITE is part of the ACC's Committee for Racial and Social Justice (CORE - Champions of Racial Equity) C.O.R.E was created in June 2020 to support the ACC's commitment to social justice and racial equity. Members of C.O.R.E. include conference office staff members and campus representatives from each of the league's 15 institutions. C.O.R.E.'s mission is to promote and encourage inclusion, racial equity and social justice through education, partnerships, engagement and advocacy.
Gallery: (7-19-2022) DEV: ACC C.O.R.E. initiative in Alabama