6-15-2026 | MEDIA ADVISORY
RefuseFascism.org
917 407 1286
@RefuseFascism
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Interviews available
AMERICA AT 250:
Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth
Public Forum at Independence Mall Examines the Fight Over Black History, National Memory, and America’s Future
PHILADELPHIA- As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, battles over history, national memory, and national identity are intensifying. On June 26, just steps from the President’s House Memorial at Independence Hall – a site where enslaved Africans were held in bondage as the foundations of the American republic were laid–Refuse Fascism will convene an outdoor public forum examining the implications of historical erasure and the growing struggle over how America’s past is understood and taught.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday June 12 ordering the Trump administration to restore exhibits it had removed from national parks and monuments in response to plaintiffs who argued that the U.S. Department of the Interior has been engaged in a “sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.” The forum will take place at Independence Mall, where ongoing controversies surrounding the President’s House Slavery Memorial have become a focal point in broader disputes over how the nation’s history is publicly presented.
WHAT: America at 250: Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth
The Fight Over Black History, National Memory, and America’s Future
WHEN: Friday, June 26, 2026 6:00 PM
WHERE: People’s Plaza, Independence Mall Philadelphia, PA
WHO:
• Michael Coard —Attorney and founder of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. He helped win the creation of the President’s House Slavery Memorial and is now leading the fight to stop its dismantling by the Trump Regime and defend the public telling of slavery’s history at Independence Mall.
• Masaru Edmund Nakawatase — Japanese American civil rights organizer, educator, and peace advocate born in the Poston incarceration camp during World War II.
• Dread Scott — Visual artist whose work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Whitney Museum and has been outlawed by the US Congress.
• Sam Goldman — Host of the Refuse Fascism Podcast (facilitator)
Hosted by Refuse Fascism Philly. Refuse Fascism is a nationwide movement clear on the problem—Trump fascism—and committed to uniting all who can be united to stop it through mass, nonviolent struggle demanding TRUMP MUST GO NOW. In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.
WHY: As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, a fierce struggle is underway over what people are allowed to know, remember, and say about this country. In March 2025, President Trump issued the executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity in American History,” escalating efforts to reshape how slavery, Native genocide, Jim Crow, immigration, and the long history of resistance to oppression are presented in schools, museums, historic sites, and public institutions.
Organizers argue these efforts are part of a broader campaign to impose a sanitized nationalism, mythologized vision of America while suppressing the truth about U.S. history, white supremacy, oppression, and dissent. At stake is not only how the past is understood, but how the present and future are shaped: how history is remembered shapes what people are prepared to accept in the present and what future becomes possible.
Organizers are seeking media partners interested in helping bring this timely discussion to a broader public audience through live-streaming, broadcast, rebroadcast, podcast, or other media platforms.
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