Big Ten Conference Poised To Lead Second Groundbreaking Educational Experience Through “Big Life Series”
Student-athletes, educators and stakeholders to trace steps of U.S. civil rights movement July 14-16 in Alabama
ROSEMONT, Ill. (July 12, 2023) – For the second consecutive year, the Big Ten Conference will lead an unparalleled educational journey for selected student-athletes, coaches, administrators and stakeholders. The “Big Life Series: Selma to Montgomery”, takes place Friday, July 14 through Sunday, July 16, 2023. This immersive and transformational experience will follow the steps of the United States civil rights movement during a trip to Alabama.
The “Big Life Series” is a cornerstone initiative led by the Big Ten Equality Coalition and highlights the conference’s ongoing commitment to examine and search for answers to the racial, social, religious and cultural challenges faced by our country. This year’s event will also feature participants from a handful of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), including Florida A&M University, Howard University and North Carolina A&T University. The centerpiece of the Alabama experience will be a march across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, site of the 1965 Bloody Sunday attack.
The trip begins on Friday, July 14 with visits to several local civil rights museums, including the Rosa Parks Museum, Freedom Riders Museum and Montgomery Interpretive Center, located on the campus of Alabama State University. Friday evening will include keynote speaker and civil rights activist Sheyann Webb-Christburg, known as the “smallest freedom fighter”. The evening will conclude with an empowering and educational panel featuring young civil rights leaders representing the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU.
The event continues Saturday, July 15 with a bus trip to Selma and a community service project. Attendees will pack back-to-school backpacks with school supplies and balls provided by Wilson Sporting Goods to promote a healthy and active lifestyle. This will be followed with a visit to the First Baptist Church, the site where the Dallas County Voters League mobilized hundreds of students to begin their landmark civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Attendees will hear from several local speakers including Mayor James Perkins Jr., Lynda Blackmon Lowery and Warren Billy Young. Participants in this year’s “Big Life Series” will then make their own walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge before the group returns to Montgomery. Community activist Doris Dozier Crenshaw will address the group at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The final event on Saturday will be a visit to the award-winning Legacy Museum, which provides an immersive experience from enslavement to mass incarceration.
The 2023 “Big Life Series: Selma to Montgomery” trip is sponsored in part by the Capital One Orange Bowl and the Tournament of Roses Association and Rose Bowl Game.