YWCA Madison will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Racial Justice Summit, one of the region’s largest and longest-running racial justice conferences, with its annual event on Oct. 7-8.
The YWCA Madison Racial Justice Summit annually brings together nationally recognized speakers, community leaders, and changemakers for two days of learning, dialogue, and collective action. The Summit will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Monona Community and Convention Center and virtually on Thursday, Oct. 8.
“As part of YWCA Madison’s milestone celebrations in 2026, the 25th Racial Justice Summit honors our ongoing commitment to learning and movement building and the bold vision that orients all we do: our mission and north star of eliminating racism and empowering women,” YWCA Madison said in a statement announcing the event. “Since 2001, the Racial Justice Summit has brought our community together to reconnect with that shared purpose, creating space for learning, multiracial solidarity, and collective practice that strengthens our work for racial justice.
The Summit is stewarded by YWCA Madison’s Learning & Movement Building Team, formerly known as the Race and Gender Equity Team, led by Libby Tucci and Semaj Sconiers,
“We always aim to bring in teachers and practitioners from the national level that we see casting the boldest liberatory visions, naming the aspects of transformation that are most imperative to be responsive to our current contexts, and offering the most expansive invitations for how we shape change for racial justice when we go forward from the Summit experience,” said Tucci, the director of Learning and Movement Building.
YWCA Madison is a non-profit organization on a mission to eliminate racism and empower women, promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all in four main areas: housing justice, economic justice, learning & movement building, and restorative justice.
“These times are calling us into a deeper practice of solidarity across all fabricated borders because so many of the rights that our movement ancestors fought for are being deliberately under attack,” said Gery Paredes Vásquez, YWCA Madison CEO. “This milestone year is both a celebration and a call to individuals, institutions, and organizations to gather and collectively discern and reaffirm our commitment to the ongoing work needed to steward racial justice and gender equity in our region.”
To learn more about the Racial Justice Summit and register, click here.
The deadline to register is Sept. 14.
