FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2025

Special Independence Day Fireside Chat: “Freedom at 249—Are We Still America?”

Forward Party of Virginia Hosts Dr. Colita Fairfax of Norfolk State University for a Powerful Conversation on Race, Freedom, and the Fight to Preserve Democracy

LEESBURG, VA – As America prepares to celebrate its 249th birthday this July 4th, the Forward Party of Virginia presents a powerful and timely special edition of its Fireside Chat podcast series. Host Sophia A. Nelson welcomes renowned public historian and scholar Dr. Colita Fairfax of Norfolk State University for a stirring conversation titled "Freedom at 249—Are We Still America?"

Dr. Fairfax, a Full Professor at Norfolk State University with over two decades of teaching and scholarship, joins Nelson to examine the arc of American democracy from its founding in 1776 to its fractured state in 2025. Drawing on her expertise in African American Studies, social policy, and historiography, Dr. Fairfax offers sharp insights into the nation’s ongoing struggle with race, belonging, and constitutional promise.

“What we’re seeing today—the attacks on diversity, the rollback of civil rights protections, the push to end birthright citizenship—is not new,” Dr. Fairfax says. “It echoes the Confederate project, Jim Crow segregation, and a long history of denying humanity and inclusion to people of color, immigrants, and the marginalized.”

The discussion delves into the parallels between 19th-century racial exclusion and today’s anti-DEI backlash, mass ICE raids, and proposed legislation like the so-called Big Beautiful Bill in Congress. Dr. Fairfax draws a bold line from slavery to the 14th Amendment, birthright citizenship, and the unfinished project of true multiracial democracy.

The July 4th episode urges listeners to consider the fragility of freedom and the dangers of creeping authoritarianism. Nelson and Fairfax challenge everyday Americans to defend liberty, not just as a celebration, but as a civic responsibility.

“If we are to remain a free people,” Nelson adds, “we must confront the hard truths of our past and present. The very idea of America is at stake.”

Dr. Fairfax, a native of Richmond, VA, and a graduate of Howard, Rutgers, and Temple University, has authored and edited numerous works, including The African Experience in Colonial Virginia, and contributed to landmark historic preservation projects across the Commonwealth. Her lifelong work centers on healing, justice, and restoring forgotten truths of the African American experience in America.

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