Theme
We can achieve racial justice by learning from the many wins of movement leaders and ancestors of the past, and understanding that time and again, we have only been successful when we have risen together in solidarity. Thus this year’s Facing Race theme is Rooted in Resistance, Powered by Solidarity. On this year, the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence, we will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina, to remind ourselves that the struggle for racial justice is not only about the battles we’ve fought and won, but about our vision of a world where communities of color govern and thrive. Our progress may be under attack, but our power that’s rooted in community, solidarity, and shared values continues to grow and shape what is possible. We honor and celebrate the deep roots of resistance, and rise to meet the challenges and opportunities of this era together.
This year also highlights the critical role of local governments in advancing multiracial democracy amidst rising authoritarianism as we hold the Government Alliance on Race and Equity during Facing Race.
Host City: Raleigh, North Carolina
We are honored to convene Facing Race 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the land, the people, and the history remind us what it means to be deeply rooted. Known as the “City of Oaks,” Raleigh symbolizes the resilience of communities whose strength lies in roots that cannot be eliminated. North Carolina and the South more broadly have long been the cradle of civil rights struggle and innovation: from the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University in Raleigh, which became a driving force for grassroots organizing across the South, to the tireless work of Black farmers, laborers, and freedom fighters who organized for dignity and justice in the face of relentless opposition. By gathering in Raleigh, we honor the South not only as a site of historic struggle, but as a place of imagination and movement-building that continues to shape the path forward. Here, the roots of civil rights organizing run deep—and they continue to rise in power.
Desired Intentions
Facing Race 2026 is dedicated to nurturing a space that unites individuals, movements, and communities to ensure our thriving in a racially just world. Through this gathering, we aim to:
- Honor and celebrate the collective struggle and wins, and the inherent power of our movement by grounding attendees in our shared history and stories.
- Elevate the strategies, tools, and resources from local and national racial justice leaders, strategists, activists, and organizers needed to resist and dismantle systems of oppression, while building solidarity and liberation.
- Strengthen and build cross-movement connections and infrastructure to deepen solidarity rooted in a shared vision of liberation and thriving.
Tracks
In alignment with this year’s theme, Deep Roots, Rising in Power, the Facing Race 2026 content tracks highlight the many ways communities are building, exercising, and reclaiming power:
- Organizing To Build Power: Sessions with organizers and grassroots leaders that elevate the lessons, strategies, tools, campaigns, and community-labor coalitions that are building the organizing infrastructure to and capacity to advance racial justice and a common good agenda through cross-racial solidarity.
- Transforming Institutions to Shift Power: Sessions that highlight the work of social justice organizations, philanthropy, and government agencies that advance racial equity by systematically changing institutions, policies, and practices to center racial justice. This track lifts strategies from government, the broader public sector, philanthropy, and cross-sector partners that influence government to change policy, practice, culture, and decision-making. Sessions in this track will emphasize operationalizing racial equity within institutions, including navigating political and legal constraints, responding to backlash, and building durable internal capacity to sustain equity work over time.
- Building Narrative Power for Change: Sessions that elevate cultural and narrative strategies that not only disrupt oppressive and racist myths and ideologies but also offer an irresistible vision for a racially just world. In particular, this track is for sessions that show how building narrative power can concretely shift policy and behavior, change institutions and culture, and build solidarity across communities and institutions.
- Building Co-governance Power: Sessions that elevate strategies and practices that center shared power and collective decision-making between communities and institutions for racial justice and systemic equity. In particular, this track is most interested in sessions that can focus on critical tools and processes that support cross-sector collaboration, place-based examples that demonstrate how collective power can create impactful results, research and insights connecting how building shared-governance can reinforce democratic infrastructure to support a multi-racial society.
Rationale
The racial justice movement is in the fight of our lifetime. It is a battle for the power we need to shape the future of the just multiracial democracy we deserve. Systems of oppression continue to work tirelessly to strip governing power from communities of color, from poor and working-class people, from queer and trans people, from women and migrants. It is worth noting that this era of backlash was born by the threats posed by the rising multiracial solidarity of civil rights movement and the labor movement, from the Brown v. Board decision highlighting the threat of multiracial democracy on the establishment to 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom to the 1968 and the Poor People’s Campaign.
The task for us today is to not only defend racial justice but to reclaim, renew, and reimagine governing power for communities most impacted by systemic racism. From NYC to Chicago to Seattle to Minneapolis, multiracial coalitions of unions and grassroots organizing groups have been able to overcome the power of the billionaire class that is advancing this era of backlash by growing solidarity.
Governing for racial justice is one expression of that reclamation: a structure for decision-making, resource allocation, power distribution, and order that centers those most impacted by structural racism. It is the ability to influence, control, steward, and transform systems, processes, institutions, culture, and the distribution of resources in service of our collective freedom from systemic racism and injustice.
As we move through this political moment, one marked by heightened attacks on our rights and freedoms, Facing Race 2026 calls us to remember: we are in a battle for racial justice, governing power necessary for the thriving of our communities and the survival of us all. We stand on the shoulders of movement leaders, activists, freedom fighters, protestors, and organizers who came before us — and we answer to the generations who will follow. “Our power is collective, our compass is truth, and our fuel is history."
Call to Action
- Register today to attend and be apart of the most critical racial justice convening of the year.
- Still thinking? Convince your employer and watch our 5 reasons Why you should attend Facing Race.
- Download the Whova App to stay updated on conference offerings and connect with attendees
- Interested in helping out? Applications open in April for volunteers! Follow Race Forward socials to learn more.