The Nonprofit Hijacking America’s 250th Birthday Celebration Is The 1619 Project On Steroids
Next year marks the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence — the semiquincentennial. Unfortunately, instead of a yearlong birthday party and a celebration of American history, the stage is being set for 2026 to be a year of neurotic self-loathing.
The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission (also called America 250) was created to provide national coordination for next year’s commemorative events. Ostensibly, each state and territory has also appointed its own independent committee to plan more local contributions to the festivities. In reality, a minimum of 14 states have adopted programming recommendations from a single non-profit called the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
The motivation driving the AASLH’s recommendations is neither celebratory nor constructive. John Dichtl, the president and CEO of the AASLH, recorded a Zoom presentation in 2021 in which he explicitly outlined their goals. He describes 2026 as a “once in a generation opportunity to critically engage with our nation’s history,” and a chance to “foster critical awareness of our faults, past and present, and the changes we need to make now to move toward justice.”
To advance this cause, they have produced The AASLH’s Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial. This guide provides five themes around which programming should be oriented: Unfinished Revolutions, Power of Place, We the People, American Experiment, and Doing History.
These recommended themes are designed to steer programming away from celebrating American independence and instead undermine American identity and further a political agenda.
The “Unfinished Revolutions” theme treats the American Revolution as nothing more than a touchstone for launching into discussions around how “people have continually challenged America to live up to our highest ideals.” None of the recommended programming under this theme is geared toward educating people about America’s founding. On the contrary, it prescribes asking “Beyond the Revolution itself, what were other revolutionary moments in the history of our country, our states, and our communities?”
The only element under the “Power of Place” at all related to the Revolution is the question “What was happening in your community during the Revolutionary Era?” Of course, most of the current geography of the United States was not part of the original 13 colonies. This will require educators or historical interpreters to shift the discussion away from the founding to “Indigenous peoples’ past and present connections with American spaces” as well as “the profound and unequal consequences of imperial expansion and colonization across the continent.”
The “We the People” theme is equally superficial in its connection to 1776. One might anticipate an exploration of who the people of the colonies were, not just the politicians but the average citizens who made up the Minutemen, or who farmed the land, or raised the children. Instead, the programming is decidedly contemporary and focused on unequal distributions of power. It orients discussion around “Who has been, and remains, excluded from full participation and representation in our democracy?” The AASLH also suggests considering the questions of “Who is considered an ‘American’ — and who gets to decide?”
These questions are not useful for educating people about the Revolutionary Era. They can, however, be useful in redirecting discussion away from that subject and toward arguments about expanding the franchise for non-citizens and people under 18. They could also generate discussion about racial disparities in the justice system since many states bar convicted felons from voting.
The “American Experiment” section continues with more politically loaded questions. Here, the AASLH skeptically adds sneer quotes when asking how “revolutionary” the American Revolution was. They then shift focus to state and local governments with the questions like, “How was your local and state government organized?” and “Who did it serve and who does it continue to exclude?”
These questions are not passive inquiries. They are deliberately designed to nudge the respondent into diminishing the significance of the American Revolution. It ceases to be a righteous triumph against an unjust monarchy and becomes simply a transition from one corrupt tyranny to another. Like the others, this theme is not intended to broaden knowledge of the Revolution or deepen understanding of it. Rather, as the guide says, it is to “… inspire action and reveal ways that all of us can participate in and shape the ongoing American experiment.”
The final theme, “Doing History,” focuses on asking who has been historically silenced or excluded from traditional presentations. Again, the American Revolution is a pretense, quickly dismissed so discussion can instead be about “inclusivity” and the value of “other disciplines” aside from history. This theme, along with the rest of the AASLH’s field guide, is a blueprint for deconstructing America by delegitimizing our founding. This is “The 1619 Project” on steroids.
In 2021, many states passed laws restricting teaching rooted in critical race theory, intersectionality, and similar race-based theories. Dichtl has made clear his contempt for efforts to abolish racialized education and has boasted that he plans to use the opportunity presented by America 250 to work around those restrictions. To support this circumvention, the AASLH sent out 20,000 copies of their field guide to historians, scholars, and teachers. The ubiquity of the guide is no doubt why states like Wisconsin, Idaho, and even Texas have all embraced this programming for their planning committees.
As Howard Zinn put it, “you can’t be neutral on a moving train.” Existing traditions, values, and culture are either being reproduced or they are being dissolved and dismantled. The AASLH and their like-minded allies have recognized America’s 250th anniversary as a major cultural battlefield. They are doing everything they can to direct the train away from jubilant affirmation toward compulsive deconstruction.
In 1976, after the resignation of the president, years of leftist terror bombings, and several political assassinations, the bicentennial provided the nation with a fresh coat of bold, patriotic paint. In contrast, the semiquincentennial is shaping up to be yet another deluge of heritage-effacing turpentine.
Patriotism cannot be allowed to go out of fashion. If it does, less sophisticated theories of shared destiny will reassert themselves in the form of destructive prejudice. The AASLH has produced a field guide aimed at accelerating the erosion of our unifying convictions.
Travis Ekbom is a political activist in Minnesota and the founder of MNUSA250, a nonprofit dedicated to influencing Minnesota’s contributions to the semiquincentennial.
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