WILLIAMSBURG — With the nation’s 250th anniversary barely a year away, nearly 600 scholarly, cultural and civic leaders converged on the grounds of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to prepare for the nation’s semiquincentennial in 2026.
Representatives from 40 states and 61 Virginia localities, representing more than 100 cultural institutions, gathered in Williamsburg March 24-26 for the largest-ever “A Common Cause To All” annual planning event.
Hosted by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Virginia’s American Revolution 250 Commission, the three-day event — the third and final in a series — brought historians, jurists, writers and filmmakers together with museum and civic leaders to catalyze their planning to commemorate next year’s historic anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
As the largest British colony in North America at the time of the Revolution, Virginia’s central role in America’s origin story was on full display throughout the event, according to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
This year marked the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s legendary “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech in Richmond that galvanized the colony’s critical support for war against Great Britain, it noted.
“We do not say ‘America, Made in Virginia’ as a brag or as a challenge,” said Carly Fiorina, the 250 Commission’s National Honorary Chair who also serves as Board chair of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. “We say it because we feel a special obligation … Here in Virginia, you are not simply making a journey to Williamsburg, or Jamestown, or Mount Vernon or Monticello. You are coming home. As the birthplace of our nation, Virginia belongs to every American. Welcome home.”
Fiorina spoke Tuesday evening shortly before filmmaker Ken Burns previewed his upcoming documentary, “The American Revolution,” co-directed by Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, before a crowd of nearly 4,000 on a large outdoor screen in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
The nearly 30-minute preview included scenes filmed in Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital, where CWF notes luminaries such as Henry, George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson once debated revolutionary ideas in the House of Burgesses.
“It’s particularly important that we use the time between now and the Fourth of July, 2026, to put the ‘us’ back into the United States …” Burns told the crowd. “We’ve devoted our entire professional lives to trying to figure out how to tell good stories about American history, and there is no story more important or more riveting than this one.”
After the free screening, fireworks lit up the sky against the background of live music played by The Colonial Williamsburg Fifes & Drum.
Throughout the event, CWF said an array of prizewinning thought and change leaders offered insights into the significance of this historic time and place for Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs. Top of mind for many were the rifts across the nation’s contemporary social and political landscapes — mirroring the acrimony and conflict that characterized America’s founding era — and the potential to draw Americans closer together by sharing a complete and honest history of the nation, the foundation added.
“I think that the legacy of the 250th can, should and will be collaboration — that the way we can achieve impact is by working together, and by achieving impact, we ensure our legacy,” said Mia Nagawiecki, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Vice President for Education Strategy and Civic Engagement, during her remarks to Common Cause participants.
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation said commemoration planners left the Williamsburg with the perspective and practical resources they gathered throughout the event — in Fiorina’s words, to continue “the semiquincentennial movement.”
