Exclusive: This Nine-City Tour is Spreading ‘Joy & Justice’ to Black Women and Girls Across the South

This summer, the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium (SBG) is uniting Black women and girls around wellness, safety and civic engagement while having a little fun along the way.

In an exclusive interview with The Root, SBG co-founder Latosha Brown and CEO Chanceé Lundy explained how the idea of Black girl joy grew into a grassroots organization that reimagines investment as they embark on their nine-city ‘Joy & Justice Tour.’

After learning that less than one percent of approximately $5 billion in philanthropic investments in the South reached Black women and girls, Brown asked, “What brings a Black girl joy, and what conditions are needed for joy to manifest?” This stark funding gap limited opportunities for Black girls and contributed to the systemic barriers they face.

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Brown, a Selma native, said the South has too often failed to create the conditions for Black girls and women to thrive. That disconnect became the consortium’s foundation, which Brown built with three women described on the website as “philanthropic powerhouses.”

“We weren’t asking other people to solve the problem,” Brown said. “We would generate our own solutions.”

Funding Community Interests

Today, the consortium has awarded nearly $12 million to more than 250 organizations across 13 Southern states. But it was never intended to function like a traditional grantmaker.

Brown and Lundy said the organization lets members of the community help decide where funding goes through a Wisdom Council.

“We believe that community members know what’s best for [the] community and the issues that we need to be addressing and that we need to prioritize,” Lundy said.

Since 2017, these investments have supported organizations focused on maternal health, reproductive justice, STEM education, restorative justice, leadership, domestic violence prevention, and period poverty. Many operate on small budgets, serving for years without significant funding.

“It’s not transactional,” Lundy said of the consortium’s relationship with grantees, adding that for many recipients, the funding affirms that their work is seen and valued.

Joy & Justice on the Road

For Black women, who are too often marginalized and overlooked, joy and justice cannot be separated, according to Brown. The consortium is taking that philosophy on the road with a nine-city Joy & Justice Tour, which centers on wellness, safety and civic engagement, while making room for ageless girlhood.

“You can’t accomplish one without the other, particularly for an oppressed people,” she said.

Depending on the stop, participants could join a wellness walk with GirlTREK, talk with an OB-GYN, learn how to braid hair, create vision boards, or learn the skill and science behind making lip gloss.

Many activities are designed by the youth ambassadors themselves, creating spaces that counter adultification with grace rather than judgment.

“You just got suspended last week?” Lundy said, describing the organization’s approach. “You need joy, too.”

The tour intentionally includes rural communities near urban centers. According to the website, remaining tour stops are Louisville, Kentucky (Aug. 8); Richmond, Virginia (Aug. 21); Charleston, West Virginia (Aug. 22); and Columbia, South Carolina (Sept. 26).

Voting as Community Care

With a major election cycle underway, the tour also includes voter engagement, an advocacy and justice station, and a “Vote for Me” campaign for youth who aren’t yet old enough to vote but live with political decisions that affect their safety and future.

While the initiatives reflect Brown’s broader role as co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Lundy said they aren’t trying to tell Black women what their issues are.

“They’re experiencing them every day,” she said.

Brown agreed, adding that Black women are an important voting bloc.

“Black women are, in my opinion, the most sophisticated voters in this country,” she said. “At the end of the day, part of what Black women have always stood in a space for is: how do we actually protect our community from harm?”

Investing Beyond Dollars

For Brown and Lundy, the investment has never been just financial. They see Black girls not as problems to fix, but as brilliant people with possibility.

Brown pointed to her relationship with Lundy as proof. They met nearly three decades ago, when Lundy was 14 and carrying extraordinary family responsibilities. Brown created leadership opportunities that influenced Lundy’s future. Today, they lead the consortium together. But Brown said the relationship transformed her as well. “She’s actually helped shape the woman who I am.”

Their story reflects the organization’s vision to invest in Black girls not simply as beneficiaries but as future leaders who, when given room to be safe and joyful, can recognize what was already within them.

In a world fixated on external resources, Brown said, the greatest wealth has been inside communities all along. “We are the wealth. Our children are the wealth,” Brown said. “There is no higher technology than a human being.”