A regional initiative aimed at addressing health, safety and funding disparities facing Black women and girls across the South will conclude its nine-city tour in Charlotte on Sunday, Sept. 27, with a free community festival.
The final stop of the 2026 “Joy & Justice Tour,” organized by the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium, will take place at Ranson Middle School at 5850 Statesville Road. Activities begin at 8 a.m. with a “Joy & Justice Walk” led by the health organization GirlTREK, followed by the main festival at 1 p.m.
While a core team of organizers travels between cities in a pink tour bus, the festival relies on local resources, small businesses and grassroots organizations at each stop to run the programming.
“The tour itself is traveling, but the activations that we have, some of them are standard, but some of them are homegrown,” Executive Director Chanceé Lundy said in an interview. “Most of the people participating are coming right from the region that we’re in.”…