Pac-12 Representatives Head To Alabama Focused On Social Injustice

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – University of Colorado student-athletes Ian Gilmore (track and field) and Karly van Leer (lacrosse) will represent the Buffaloes as the Pac-12 Conference sends 46 student-athletes, coaches, administrators, conference staff, and other key stakeholders to take part in the delegation traveling to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama.
 
The experience is set to take place from July 15-17 and include an immersive journey to one of the centers of the civil rights movement. The group will participate in a variety of activities highlighted by a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” attacks.
 

“The Pac-12 is committed to developing meaningful educational opportunities for our student-athletes, including in the critically-important area of social justice,” said Pac-12 Deputy Commissioner Teresa Gould.  “The trip to Selma & Montgomery will provide an unforgettable opportunity to learn about the civil rights movement, and to use the positive impact of those learnings to build a better society for all.”
 
The initiative, conducted in collaboration with the ACC and Big Ten, is part of a commitment to supporting student-athletes through meaningful educational opportunities, including the area of social justice.  The Pac-12 has developed a unique social outreach initiative with “Pac-12 Impact,” under which this trip is being conducted. Learn more about the initiative at Pac-12.com/impact.
 
The Pac-12’s social justice experience will begin 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 continues Saturday in Selma as Lydia Blackmon Lowery will share her story marching at the Selma Voting Rights march alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the group visits 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 will continue with a march across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge before the group returns to Montgomery to visit a series of landmarks, museums, and learning centers.
 
In Montgomery, the group…