Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced plans for the league's 2023 Unity Tour, which will be held July 9-12 in Washington, D.C. Representing the Hokies in the nation's capital will be Joe Joe Headen (football), Alec Fleming (men's track and field/cross country), Fiona Richards (women's track and field) and Reyna Gilbert-Lowry (administration).
The tour is part of the ACC's commitment to supporting student-athletes through meaningful educational opportunities, including the area of social justice, and is a component of the league's social-justice platform, ACC UNITE.
"We're excited to participate in the second annual ACC Unity Tour," Gilbert-Lowry said. "The ACC continues to show their commitment to education and engagement around social justice and diversity and inclusion initiatives for its student-athletes, coaches and staff. I'm proud of the group that will be representing Virginia Tech and look forward to continuing the impact once we return to Blacksburg."
Participants of this tour will engage in an immersive educational experience in the nation's capital. Among the planned activities, the group will visit key sites of the civil rights movement and engage in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. The trip will be highlighted with a historical guided walk of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. The main theme of the tour is awareness to action, with a focus on racial and gender equity.
One of the premier activities will provide the group with an opportunity to get a glimpse into the March on Washington that occurred in August 1963 when 250,000 people attended a protest focused on inequalities faced by African Americans. This was the occasion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech." The group will walk from Black Lives Matter Plaza to the Lincoln Memorial to MLK's Statue. During the walk, guides will provide an educational lesson on the history of the March and discuss the impact of protests.
Each of the ACC's 15 member institutions will have up to 10 representatives (six student-athletes, four coaches or staff) in the 2023 ACC Unity Tour.
Among the tour's highlights:
- Tour of the National Museum of African American History & Culture
- Tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Gender Equity & Sports Panel, presented by the Orange Bowl (held at Audi Field's Eagle Bank Club, home of the DC United and Washington Spirit)
- DC Community Service Projects
This marks the second UNITY Tour. In 2022, ACC student-athletes and staff visited Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, for an immersive journey to one of the centers of the civil rights movement.
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.