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Ten Represent Duke at 2023 ACC Unity Tour
7/28/2023 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Men's Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse, Volleyball, Athletics
DURHAM – Six Duke student-athletes and four staff representatives participated in the ACC's 2023 Unity Tour, which was held July 9-12 in Washington, D.C.
Christina Barrow (Volleyball), Jaylen Blakes (Men's Basketball), Charlie Johnson (Men's Lacrosse), Rachel Richardson (Volleyball), Sydney Smith (Women's Lacrosse) and Sydney Tomlak (Volleyball) represented Duke alongside Leslie Barnes, Dan Brooks, Taren Moore and Jamal White at the immersive educational experience.
The tour was 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.
Participants of the tour engaged in an immersive educational experience in the nation's capital. Among the planned activities, the group visited key sites of the civil rights movement and engaged in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. The trip was highlighted with a historical guided walk of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. The main theme of the tour was awareness to action, with a focus on racial and gender equity.
"The Unity Trip truly changed my life. It was a chance to see competitors in a new light and call them friends. The friendships I gained from that trip is unmatched and the knowledge I learned from each and every person is once in a lifetime. Not only with other ACC schools but different people within Duke as well. The tagline of awareness to action is very exciting in the days to come to see how we all continue to support each other!" – Christina Barrow, Volleyball
"The ACC Unity trip was an awesome opportunity for me to meet people from Duke as well as student-athletes from across the ACC. The programming provided engaging trips to historical sites, museums, and panels of experts in their field. My main takeaway from the trip was how the differing backgrounds from which we all came did not divide us, but rather allowed us to enrich each other with new experiences and perspectives that without open and honest dialogue might never have been possible. I am immensely grateful for the many people I met on the trip and the insight into what they were truly passionate about." – Charlie Johnson, Men's Lacrosse
One of the premier activities provided 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 walked from the Black Lives Matter Plaza to the Lincoln Memorial to MLK's Statue. During the walk, guides provided an educational lesson on the history of the March and discussed the impact of protests.
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.
About the ACC
The Atlantic Coast Conference, now in its 70th year of competition and 15 members strong, has long enjoyed the reputation as one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate conferences in the nation. ACC members Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest continue to build upon the cornerstones on which the league was founded in 1953 with a consistent balance of academics, athletics and integrity. The ACC currently sponsors 27 NCAA sports – 14 for women and 13 for men – with member institutions located in 10 states. Women's gymnastics will become the league's 28th sponsored sport in the 2023-24 academic year. In August 2019, ESPN and the ACC partnered to launch ACC Network (ACCN), a 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports and league-wide original programming. For more information, visit theACC.com and follow @theACC on Twitter and on Facebook (facebook.com/theACC).
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Players Mentioned
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