#RaceAnd Democracy: (Re)Imagining the Next 250 Years. A 5-part webinar series that maps different pathways towards defining what a racially just democracy must look be like in the next 250 years: considering repair and healing, belonging and justice, institutional change, co-governance, and solidarity. One ticket provides access to all webinars, including recordings and materials.

DemocracyIs: Repairing Place, Rebuilding Power June 18th, 2026 | 11-12:30 PT

DemocracyIs: Justice & Belonging Jun 23, 2026| 9am to 10:00am PT

DemocracyIs: Co-Governing New Futures Jul 1, 2026|12 to 1:30pm PT

DemocracyIs: Global Solidarity Jul 16, 2026| 12 to 1:30pm PT

DemocracyIs: Cultural and Narrative Change for Multiracial Democracy Jul 30, 2026| 12 to 1:30pm PT

This year’s observance of our country’s 250th Anniversary of Independence calls for us to reflect on how far our communities have come in out fight for racial justice and genuine liberation from systemic oppression. We need to have an honest reflection on the movement’s many wins for racial justice and the recent backlash against these wins. Even before our Independence, ancestors, freedom fighters, and movement leaders have been working and fighting to dismantle systemically racist policies, institutions, and culture that have undergirded and marked this country’s founding and existence for the last 250 years. And yet today, despite our many wins, structural racism continues to be one of the biggest barriers in achieving our dream of a democratic country where everyone is truly free.

In addition, this call for reflection is because of and against the background of the State’s increasing violent attacks on reproductive and civil rights, migrant communities, trans people, and people of color. This moment in our history calls for us to come together and figure out how we can stop the country’s freefall into autocracy, the rate of which is the fastest in the world, that magnifies the impact of structural racism on impacted communities.

And so,starting Juneteenth, the commemoration of the end of slavery, Race Forward will offer a series of opportunities to engage in conversations that examine the relationship between racial justice and true American Freedom. During this time of commemoration, Race Forward invites all of us to define what democracy is through the lens of racial justice. Only then can we forge a path towards a multiracial democracy that is truly “of the people, by the people, and for the people” in the next 250 years.

Starting on Juneteenth, Race Forward will be launching a campaign to help us define what a racially just democracy is like: DemocracyIs:(Re)Imagining the Next 250 Years

Central to this campaign is a webinar series: #RaceAnd Democracy: (Re)Imagining the Next 250 Years. This 5-part webinar series maps different pathways towards defining what a racially just democracy is for the next 250 years: considering repair, belonging and justice, institutional change, co-governance, and solidarity..

DemocracyIs: Repairing Place, Rebuilding Power| June 18th 11-12:30 PT

Carolyn Johnson, Executive Director, Black Cultural Zone (Oakland CA)

Winta Yohannes, Executive Director, Albina Vision Trust (Portland OR)

JT Flowers, Director of Government Affairs and Communications, Albina Vision Trust

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the historical connection between the Civil Rights Movement and today’s Black-led community development initiatives, be introduced to strategies for translating community power into community wealth, and come away with tools for engaging their own communities, establishing co-governance decisionmaking tables, and deploying compelling narratives for land justice.

DemocracyIs: Justice & Belonging Jun 23, 2026| 9am to 10:00 am PT

Glenn Harris, President, Race Forward

Michael McAfee, Chief Executive Officer, Policy Link

john a. powell, Director, Othering and Belonging Institute

For the first time ever, Race Forward is honored to bring together three of the most respected leaders in the racial justice ecosystem. In this informal conversation between colleagues and friends, Michael McAfee (Policy Link),Glenn Harris (Race Forward), and john powell (Othering and Belonging Institute) will share their perspectives on the state of the racial justice ecosystem. Grounded in their experiences leading their organizations and shepherding their communities through the backlash against racial equity, they will share insight and inspiration on how we can survive this moment and continue to move closer to our vision of a multiracial democracy.

Together, they will reflect on the last year and a half of the second Trump administration, where we are not simply witnessing political volatility—we are confronting a coordinated effort to consolidate power through racialized authoritarianism. Across the country, democratic institutions are being weakened, dissent is being criminalized, and communities that have historically driven this nation toward a multiracial democracy are being systematically targeted and stripped of power.

This conversation will help attendees thread and understand the attacks on immigrants; diversity, equity, and inclusion; public education; reproductive freedom; trans communities; low-income and working class communities; privatization of basic needs and extraction from communities and land; stripping of voting rights and civic engagement; expansions of islamaphobia and white christian nationalism; and imperialism and war. These are not isolated culture wars- they are strategic attempts to fracture the civil rights coalition and stall the long arc of democratic transformation.

Grounded in this analysis of the movement, this conversation will elevate innovative ideas, solutions, and interventions happening across the country to fight back while continuing to lead with a clear vision of a racially just society.

Ultimately, Glenn, Michael, and john will assert that Democracy in service of everyone’s thriving must center justice, belonging, and liberation.

DemocracyIs: Co-Governing New Futures Jul 1, 2026|12 to 1:30pm PT

Niketa Brar, Civic Strategist and Movement Builder, For the Many Strategies, LLC

Liz Sullivan-Yuknis, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Partners for Dignity & Rights

Jaime Kinder, Mayor of Meadville, PA

Shari Davis, Co-Executive Director, Center for Economic Democracy

Moderated by Candace Moore, Vice President of Place, Policy, and Power, Race Forward

Race Forward believes that co-governance between communities and public institutions is necessary for achieving governing power for racial justice. A just multiracial democracy will never be possible if communities do not have access to governing power that influences their material conditions, choice points, and overall survival. In a moment when trust in government is at an all-time low due to the many harms perpetuated against our communities, is co-governance still possible? What does it look like, and what examples currently exist?

DemocracyIs: Global Solidarity Jul 16, 2026| 12 to 1:30pm PT

Kari Claudio Betancourt, La Tejedora

Judith LeBlanc, Native Organizers Alliance

Scot Nakagawa, , 22nd Century Initiative (22CI)

Bernadett Sebaly, Central European University

Jomaira Salas Pujols, Race Forward

Nikko Viquiera, Race Forward

Escalating attacks on arts and media institutions, immigrant and trans communities and the dismantling of landmark civil rights laws and policies signify the erosion of Democracy in the United States. As activists, organizers, community leaders, and social justice organizations build strategies to defend and advance civil rights in the midst of rising authoritarianism, it will be helpful for all of us to understand the larger context within which all of these are happening.

In this moment, it is important for us to step back and understand how authoritarianism in the U.S. is part of a global phenomena and pattern of autocratization that’s been happening for decades now, across different countries and places. In this session, speakers will share data, research, and stories that demonstrate historical and global trends related to democracy, autocratization, and racial justice. Field experts and organizers from the US mainland and territories, Indigenous communities, Hungary, and the Philippines will share insights to inform our work of defending and rebuilding democracy.

What do historical and global trends tell us about the path forward? Can we reverse the country’s rapid decline into autocracy? Where does our collective hope lie? With this session, we hope to invite attendees to thread the connections of our struggles and strategies across countries, thereby growing seeds of global solidarity. In weaving our different analysis of autocracy, democracy, and white supremacy across places, time, and communities, we hope to sharpen our approaches, solutions, and the lens that shape our strategies.

DemocracyIs: Cultural and Narrative Change for Multiracial Democracy Jul 30, 2026| 12 to 1:30pm PT

Sughey Ramirez

Autocracy thrives on division and isolation. It is not an accident that opposition actors have taken advantage of the country’s individualist culture to create wedges between impacted communities and movements, thus making it hard to organize for racial justice and democracy. We need a massive cultural and narrative change that will bring about solidarity against harmful systems. This conclusion of the series will also launch the Cultural Week of Action and bring together performers and artists who will help us reimagine democracy through their genius and creativity.