Before America had a name, we had a story.
As the United States marked its 250th anniversary, many celebrations looked to the nation's founding. We asked a different question:
Who has been left out of that story?
250 Years of Resistance was a month-long public history project exploring the lives, movements, and communities that have shaped the country for generations. Through storytelling, education, dialogue, and community events, we honored the people whose courage expanded the promise of freedom long before they appeared in textbooks and long after they were forgotten by them.
This archive preserves that journey.
Not because history is finished.
Because the stories we choose to preserve shape the future we build.
History is never neutral.
The stories we tell reveal what we value. The stories we omit shape what future generations believe is possible.
For too long, LGBTQ+ people, Black communities, immigrants, faith leaders, labor organizers, transgender people, and countless others have been treated as footnotes in the American story despite helping shape the country we know today.
250 Years of Resistance sought to reclaim those stories, celebrate those who carried movements forward, and remind us that justice has always been built by ordinary people willing to imagine something better.
Why Celebrate 250 Years of Resistance?
We centered:
• Intersectionality, especially LGBTQIA+ people of color
•Radical inclusion
•Faith-rooted advocacy
•The truth that our communities have always been here
Our existence is not new. Our resistance is not new. We are part of the foundation of this country.
The project began where many histories begin, by asking who was missing.
Through our Revolutionary Roots History Walk participants explored the lives of gender-expansive people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized communities whose stories have too often been erased from narratives about America's founding.
Together, we asked:
What changes when everyone is included in the story?
Revolutionary Roots
Week 1
Watch, Rev. Alba Onofrio, ED of Soulforce, as they reflect on memory, identity, and the stories we inherit during our revolutionary roots week.
History Walk
A free, self-guided walk through Freedom Park featuring ten QR code stops, each linking to the full profile of a gender-expansive person from 18th or 19th century American history. Visitors scanned, read, and walked through 250 years of hidden history at their own pace.
Our History Walk will be making Pop-up apperances through Charlotte at LGBTQ+ Events throughout 2026!
Southern Soul
Week 2
The South has never lacked heroes.
It has lacked recognition.
Throughout the week, we celebrated Southern changemakers whose courage transformed culture, challenged injustice, and expanded what freedom could mean for generations to come. From artists and activists to faith leaders and organizers, these stories reminded us that history is made by people willing to challenge the world around them.
Because every movement begins with someone choosing to act.
The South is not behind. It never was. The South has always been a site of radical queer history, lifting up the figures who organized, resisted, and built community right here, countering the narrative that progress only happens in coastal cities.
Every person has a story worth hearing.
Our Human Library invited community members to become "books," sharing their lived experiences through honest, one-on-one conversations designed to replace assumptions with understanding and curiosity with connection.
While nothing can fully recreate the experience of sitting across from another person and hearing their story firsthand, this virtual collection offers a glimpse into those powerful conversations. Here, you'll meet some of our Human Library participants as they share their journeys, reflect on the moments that shaped them, and invite you to see the world through a different lens.
We hope these stories challenge stereotypes, spark meaningful conversations, and remind us that understanding begins by listening.
The Human Library
Week 3
Faith & Justice
For many people, faith has been both a source of harm and a source of healing.
Faith has been used against LGBTQ+ people in deeply harmful ways. It has also been the foundation of some of the most powerful LGBTQ+ resistance in American history. We centered spirituality as fuel for liberation, lifting up the queer people of faith who built movements, denominations, and institutions from the ground up.
Watch, Rev. Alba Onofrio, ED of Soulforce, challenges us to be brave enough to question the stories we’ve inherited about God, ourselves, and what we are worthy of. They remind us that faith is not weakened by questions. It is strengthened by the courage to ask them.
Film Screening: Mama Bears & Panel
In partnership with St.Luke Missionary Baptist Church we hosted a community film screening followed by a panel discussion connecting the conversations touched upon on the documentary to the real life experiences of faith leaders, parents and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Watch the discussion panel and learn more about the experiences of our panelists.
Faith is not the opposite of resistance. It has always been its fuel.
Week 4
The Next 250
The Future Is Fluid.
History does not end with us.
We started by going back. Now we look forward. We brought generations of LGBTQ+ activists into conversation, examining the legislative landscape, the movement being inherited, and the world being built by the people who will carry it forward. We explored how movements survive, how leadership is passed from one generation to the next, and what kind of future we hope to build together.
Rather than asking only what history remembers, we ask:
What will future generations remember about us?
The Future Is Fluid
Each generation carries the same fight. None is carrying it alone. The Future Is Fluid is about making sure the next generation inherits a movement, not just a memory. A recorded roundtable bringing together multiple generations of LGBTQ+ activists, faith leaders and organizers ranging from 16 to to elders over 60 come together to discuss the fights each generation has inherited, the change they want to accomplish, how legislation is affecting us and the hopes they all carry moving forward.
THE WORK CONTINUES
250 Years of Resistance may have passed, but the work of justice never stops.
Every generation inherits stories. Every generation adds new ones.
We hope this archive serves not only as a record of where we've been, but as an invitation to imagine where we can go together.
Because resistance is not only about surviving the past. It's about creating the future.
Thank you for being part of this journey.