Richmond, VA

MEDIA ADVISORY — Richmond, VA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Candice M. Dixon, Communications Manager
Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium
candice@southernblackgirls.org | (334) 394-3236

Commonwealth of Virginia Proclaims August 21 Southern Black Girls Day as the Joy & Justice Tour Comes to the Virginia Capitol

Two days of joy in Virginia: Joy on the Yard, a pop-up experience for students at Virginia State University on Thursday, August 20, followed by a free, family-friendly celebration at the Virginia Capitol on Friday, August 21

The Commonwealth of Virginia is proclaiming Friday, August 21, 2026 as Southern Black Girls Day, and Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium brings the Joy & Justice Tour to the Virginia Capitol to celebrate. The day begins with breakfast alongside elected officials at the Patrick Henry Building, followed by greetings from the women leading the Commonwealth and a full day of joy on Capitol Square.

Girls will hear directly from:

  • Senator Mamie Locke
  • Majority Leader Charniele Herring
  • Traci J. DeShazor, Secretary of Administration
  • Dr. Sesha Joi Moon, Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Candi Mundon King, Secretary of the Commonwealth
  • Miss Virginia Union University

All of Virginia’s HBCUs will join the celebration: Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, and Virginia University of Lynchburg. The Virginia State University Woo Woos will welcome the girls in true HBCU style. This tour is designed to educate, uplift, inform, and celebrate Black girls and women in their fullness. You belong here!

Friday, August 21, 2026
Capitol Square, 1111 E Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23219

  • 8:00 AM — Registration and Breakfast Patrick Henry Building (Main Floor), 1111 E Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219 (Southside Entrance)

  • 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM — Greetings from Virginia officials

  • 10:30 AM — Welcome by the Virginia State University Woo Woos outside the Patrick Henry Building
  • 10:30 AM – 2:00 PM — Joy & Justice Tour, Virginia Capitol Square

Joy on the Yard at Virginia State University — Thursday, August 20, 2026
The celebration begins a day early with Joy on the Yard, a pop-up experience for college women at Virginia State University, powered by Dominion Energy.

Please note: Joy on the Yard is a private campus event and is not open to press. Media are warmly invited to Friday’s Capitol celebration.

Students can come vibe with us for an ice cream social, music from a live DJ, games, giveaways, and real talk about mental wellness, including mental health toolkits from grantee partner MH Boxes. As the VSU community begins the semester carrying the weight of this past weekend’s tragedy, Joy on the Yard offers students a space for care, community, and connection. Your joy. Your voice. Your future. #JoyOnTheYard

Our why is simple: Black women and girls in the South are facing converging crises, from gender-based violence and Black maternal health disparities to the erosion of health care access and the systemic underfunding of Black women-led organizations. Less than 1% of the South’s $4.8 billion in philanthropic investments reaches Black women and girls. The Joy & Justice Tour is the response: resources, community, and the refusal to be defined by what Black women and girls are surviving. As Executive Director Chanceé Lundy has said, joy is not a luxury; it is strategy, and right now, it is how we protect each other. Richmond carries its own resonance for this declaration: Southern Black Girls Day gathers Black girls and women inside the halls of the Virginia Capitol, welcomed by Black women leading at the highest levels of the Commonwealth, in a city with a long legacy of Black excellence, activism, and joy.

Since 2017, Southern Black Girls has awarded more than $11.4 million to over 250 organizations and provided more than $600,000 in micro-grants to 1,000+ recipients through its #BlackGirlJoyChallenge. Some of our recent Virginia grantee partners include:

  • Pretty Purposed (Chesterfield) — small-group Girl Circles delivering mentoring and social-emotional learning to more than 200 girls annually across 20+ schools and community sites in Central and Southside Virginia
  • MH Boxes (Chester) — a youth-founded nonprofit launched through a #BlackGirlJoyChallenge grant that has delivered more than 2,600 mental health care packages to Black girls across Virginia and beyond
  • Transformative Changes (Richmond area) — trauma-informed healing circles and healing justice programming centering Black girls as future leaders of change
  • Black Girl On Campus Foundation (Virginia Beach) — focused mentoring for young women of color that promotes personal development and a strong sense of hope

Register for Richmond– www.southernblackgirls.org/joytour/richmond.html
Learn more about the Joy & Justice Tour – www.southernblackgirls.org/joytour

For general tour inquiries: joytour@southernblackgirls.org

ABOUT SOUTHERN BLACK GIRLS AND WOMEN’S CONSORTIUM
Founded in 2017 by LaTosha Brown, Felecia Lucky, Alice Eason Jenkins, and Margo Miller, Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium channels philanthropic resources to Black girls, women, and femme identifying communities across 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Learn more at southernblackgirls.org.

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