HICKORY — Catawba Valley Community College said July 3, 2026, that its Social Sciences Department and Library are presenting historically themed discussions as part of America 250, the nationwide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The college said the federal Semiquincentennial Commission has coordinated the national observance since 2016.
On March 4, instructor Ethan Brooks-Livingston presented “Colonial Women and Resistance to the Stamp Act” during a Women’s History Month and Stamp Act commemoration. The college said Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765, and repealed it in March 1766 after colonial opposition. Brooks-Livingston’s talk examined how the tax on paper ignited protests, and how women, enslaved and free African Americans, and Indigenous communities remained excluded from formal political power even as resistance moved through kitchens, shops, and spinning rooms.
Brooks-Livingston said the 250th anniversary “is less about a single moment in 1776 and more about understanding the long arc of American history.”
Instructor Robert Carr presented March 18 on the Stamp Act of 1765 and “the Awakening of the American Voice,” commemorating the March 22 enactment.
Fall sessions listed include Dr. Christopher Moore on the religious beliefs of prominent founders and Jeremy Wilson on the Battle of Yorktown. Moore cited Langston Hughes’s 1936 poem “Let America Be America Again” and said commemoration should grapple with the tension between vision and reality.
Outreach and Instruction Librarian Anita McRary gathered colonial-era costumes for students and faculty and offered Flat Cornelius printouts tied to a statewide initiative on revolutionary-era leader Cornelius Harnett. The college said Harnett, born in Chowan County, opposed the 1765 Stamp Act, helped form the Sons of Liberty in Wilmington, chaired the committee that produced the 1776 Halifax Resolves, later served in the Continental Congress, was captured in a 1781 British raid on Wilmington, and died shortly after his release. Harnett County, established in 1855, is named for him.
McRary said putting on a costume can turn history from a subject into an experience. The college noted it also marked the 1976 Bicentennial.
The July 3 notice does not list fall dates, room numbers, or whether the March talks were recorded.
Official release from Catawba Valley Community College, July 3, 2026. https://cvcc.edu/cvcc-250/
