Journalist Joy-Ann Reid to moderate two panels at Black Girls Dream Conference in Birmingham

Journalist and MSNBC political analyst Joy-Ann Reid will join the Black Girls Dream Conference in Birmingham this weekend to moderate two panels: one about the history of Black girls in the civil rights movement and another about Black girls and personal development.

The Black Girls Dream Conference, which kicked off on Friday, September 16 with an opening reception at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, continues from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. today at the Harbert Center. The mission of the conference is to pay homage to the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and highlight “Invisible Giants” who were instrumental in the civil rights movement.

At 1:00 p.m., Reid will moderate a panel discussion called “Invisible Giants: Black Girls of the Civil Rights Movement.” The panel will feature Sarah Collins Rudolph, who was injured in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed her sister Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair; Dr. Robertiena Fletcher, who was jailed along with approximately thirty teenage girls for marching to to the Leesburg Stockade, Paulette Porter Roby, who marched in the Birmingham Children’s crusade in 1963, and Sheyann Webb-Christburg , one of the youngest marchers during the Selma to Montgomery Marches of 1965 and the co-author of the book “Selma, Lord, Selma.”

Later this afternoon, Reid will join LaTosha Brown, the founder of the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and Teresa Younger, the President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, for a special fireside chat entitled “Manifesting Your Black Girl Dream.”

The conference will also feature a number of sessions and panels about civics, social justice, health, and professional development.

The brainchild of The Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium, the Black Girls Dream Conference is part of the Joy is our Journey Dream Bus Tour, a month-long caravan of interactive workshops and programming centered around mental health and wellness, arts and culture, and entrepreneurship and S.T.E.M.– designed for Black girls, young women and gender-expansive youth across the South.

After stops in Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and the Blackbelt in Alabama, the tour culminates today in Birmingham. In conjunction with the conference, Kelley Ingram Park will host the Journey Dream Village from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Events at the Journey Dream Village are free. Registration is recommended.

The Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium is a collective of Black women who work in philanthropy and activism. Founded by LaTosha Brown, the consortium is led by four anchor institutions including the Appalachian Community Fund, the BlackBelt Community Foundation, the Fund for Southern Communities and the TruthSpeaks Innovation Foundation.

Update 11:30 a.m.: The conference panels have been delayed until the afternoon. New times are listed in the article above.