#ALC55 National Town Hall | Ready, Rooted, and Rising: Securing the Future for Black America

The challenges facing Black America are urgent, interconnected, and consequential. Over the past 18 months, Black communities have confronted an extraordinary period of political, economic, and institutional change. Executive actions have reshaped the federal government and challenged longstanding legal and political norms. Civil rights protections and diversity initiatives have been dismantled or weakened. Black federal workers and families have faced new economic uncertainty. Voting rights and Black political representation remain under sustained attack. Aggressive immigration enforcement has affected Black immigrant communities, while shifts in U.S. foreign policy have implications for Africa, the Caribbean, and the broader African diaspora. These developments require more than a discussion about individual policies or political controversies. They require Black America to take stock of this moment, understand what it has revealed about the strength and vulnerability of the progress we have made, and determine what must come next. The 2026 National Town Hall will therefore move through two interconnected conversations. The first will provide a clear-eyed assessment of the past 18 months: what has happened, what has been lost or threatened, how Black communities and institutions have responded, and what lessons this period should teach us. The second will turn decisively toward the future. Rather than defining Black America’s agenda solely by what we must defend, panelists will consider what we are seeking to build—and what Black communities should demand from government, business, philanthropy, civic institutions, and ourselves in the years ahead. Together, the conversations will move the audience from reckoning to vision, and from vision to action—grounded in our history, prepared for the challenges before us, and ambitious about the future we intend to create.