By Paula Scott

Dr. Todd Allen, vice-president for diversity affairs at Messiah University in Pennsylvania, appeared in Bluffton University’s Forum series on September 27 with a program titled “On the Road to Freedom: Moving the Race Conversation Forward.”

Allen was there, in part, to pitch a May 2023 travel opportunity for Bluffton students that includes a three-week, charter-bus tour of key civil rights destinations such as the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, the Whitney Plantation near New Orleans and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

Before the presentation, Allen told the Icon that he would explore how civil rights tourism can be “a vehicle for advancing conversations about race and justice and reconciliation.” Through The Common Ground Project he has led such tours for 21 years. “It’s a chance to engage this living history in a way that often isn’t done in our classrooms. It has great relevance for what we’re experiencing as a nation today.”