HBCU Gymnastics Day
Celebrate HBCU Gymnastics Day with us!
On April 25, 2026 - Rep your school, rock your gear, and post your best handstand to show pride and support for gymnastics at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Be sure to hashtag #HBCUhandsdown and join the national campaign celebrating HBCU Gymnastics Day!
HBCU Gymnastics Day was founded in 2019 by Brown Girls Do Gymnastics (BGDG) as a part of the HBCU Gymnastics Campaign! We chose the 4th Saturday of the month to celebrate the day. Unfortunately, the first HBCU Gymnastics Day (2020) was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. So we took HBCU Gymnastics Day to social media! USAG shared a post about the celebratory day and prompted us to create the Change.org petition that garnered 25,000 signatures!
In 2021, on HBCU Gymnastics Day, Grambling State University and BGDG announced GSU’s interest in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics and their partnership with BGDG to bring our Annual Conference to their campus!
In 2022, we had already partnered with Fisk University to launch the very first HBCU Intercollegiate Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team. On the 3rd Annual HBCU Gymnastics Day (2022), we hosted a virtual celebration with special guests and a live DJ! We announced Camp Isla™ - Fisk, where gymnasts would lodge on the campus of Fisk University. We also announced 8 full Camp Isla™ scholarships from the Hopkins Family Trust!
The 4th Annual HBCU Gymnastics Day is set for April 22, 2023 included 3 in-person events! Our Official sites were Atlanta (GA), Fisk University and Talladega College! The City of Talladega presented BGDG with a proclamation naming the 4th Saturday of April as HBCU Gymnastics Day!
In 2024, HBCU Gymnastics Day was officially celebrated and recognized in 5 cities via official proclamations.
Nashville, TN (2023)
Talladega, AL (2023)
Dayton, OH (2024)
Greensboro, NC (2024)
Atlanta, GA (2024)
In 2025, the City of Hampton, VA’s Mayor acknowledged the work of Brown Girls Do Gymnastics and sent an official letter of recognition for HBCU Gymnastics Day! We also celebrated HBCU Gymnastics Day in Atlanta, GA at the Pittsburgh Yards Market. We have 2 scholarships for our Annual Conference to 2 winners from our handstand contest. North Carolina Central State University welcomed representatives from BGDG on campus with a tour and our signature handstands throughout campus!
“The lack of access to gymnastics for Black and Brown people is a social justice issue!”
-Raven Thissel (former PR Director for The Doug Williams Center)
Join the HBCU Gymnastics Alliance to ensure that your university is included in this monumental moment.
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Up Next:
HBCU Gymnastics Day 2023
April 22, 2023