Unified Nassau Florida ‘ALL OF US’ Demonstration
Summary
On June 27, 2026 progressive community members gathered in downtown Fernandina Beach, Florida, in front of the historic courthouse for an “ALL OF US 250” demonstration marking the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. Organized by Unified Nassau Florida with participation from the Democratic Club of Amelia Island, the Nassau County Democratic Black Caucus, Nassau County Young Dems, and Nassau Community Voices, the event combined patriotic songs, community reflections, and remarks from leaders and candidates, including L.J. Holloway, Democratic candidate for Florida’s 4th Congressional District, and Chadd Charland, non-party-affiliated candidate for Florida House District 15. Speakers framed patriotism as a commitment to democracy, voting rights, civil liberties, reproductive freedom, religious freedom, LGBTQ+ equality, immigration, science, education, Black history, and equal justice, emphasizing that the American flag and the country’s founding promises belong to everyone.
Transcript
Karen Bowden
Good morning. My name is Karen Bowden, and I'm a member of Unified Nassau, a local Indivisible chapter.
We're gathered here today to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
Our country, from sea to shining sea, groups are gathering under a banner of All of Us 250. That's everybody, all of us. And our goal today is to redirect our country’s 250th birthday celebration to represent true American values and to take back our flag.
Yeah, we're going to sing in the streets about what makes us proud. To celebrate the America we love, we're going to make noise today, and I'd like to ask you to join me in singing the first stanza. We have song handouts of “America the Beautiful.” So my singers who are going to back me up, I need you now.
OK, “America the Beautiful.”
[They sing “America the Beautiful.”]
And, umm, as we watch the Freedom 250 events planned by our current administration in Washington to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America, which includes cage fighting on the lawn of the People’s House and a partisan rally next to the algae-filled reflecting pool, people feel they really don't click with that. They really don't fit in with that.
So let's talk about what's happening in this administration that, quite frankly, is unbelievable. They're whitewashing our history as they attempt to push back very hard on the fights our ancestors fought in order to give us the rights, freedoms, and liberties that we enjoy today.
They are pushing back on our right to gather like this and peacefully protest. They are fighting back on our choice of religion and actually giving an approved religion list to our military. They have already taken back women's reproductive rights. They're fighting our right to choose and marry whomever we love, and they're now pushing back hard on our voting rights and our civil liberties.
That does not make me proud to be an American.
I have traveled over the course of my work life and worked in many different countries. As an American, I have always felt that I was looked up to. To share our expertise, our know-how, and our generosity.
We have led the way on so many fronts: in medical care, research, science, our military, and our great universities. We have been looked up to for our First Amendment rights that are now being challenged. And perhaps most of all, we have fought for democracy around the world. That's what makes me proud to be an American.
So I would like to invite anyone who would like to speak about what makes them proud to be an American, and I know Stacy had volunteered to. Come on up. Are you ready, Stacy? Come on up here and speak loud. OK, so, OK. We can't use them.
Stacy Brown-Preliou
Good morning, everybody.
I would like to say one of the things that makes me proud about being an American is that, as a country, we have the ability to continue to make progress and make changes that are necessary for us to continue to make our way towards a more perfect union.
Our founding fathers knew that they didn't get it right. And so they left the escape clause for us to change things over time as needed. And we're still a relatively new country, and so there are still some changes that we can make to make it better, to reflect the ideals of all of us in America.
Karen Bowden
Anyone else want to speak to what makes them proud to be an American?
Peggy
I am Peggy, and I'm an engineer and a scientist by discipline, and I have worked for the National Science Foundation.
I am proud of this country for the science and the research that we have done, and unfortunately, that is threatened right now. And that's one of the reasons I'm fighting, is to make sure that science and research stay engaged with us, and we become that great nation that Stacy just mentioned.
Karen Bowden
Anyone else?
Unidentified speaker
I'm a folklorist, and I am the sixth-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin.
Oh, and I will tell you what they are doing with deporting people right now is unbelievable. It pains me terribly. And I can imagine that my great, great, great, great, great-granduncle would be rolling in his grave because he said we'll have a republic, if we can keep it, and this is not the way to keep it.
Karen Bowden
Are you another Peggy?
Carla
No.
Karen Bowden
Share your name.
Carla
I'm Carla, and like her, I date back that far.
I just found out this summer that my first cousin, nine generations removed, was Thomas Jefferson, who started this. And like him, I deeply believe in the right to vote, and that women have the right to vote.
And so I want everyone who can to join me Tuesday morning, because Tuesday morning they mail the overseas and military ballots. And if you walk into Janet's office, she'll hand you your vote-by-mail ballot, and you can vote right then. And we can start this change Tuesday morning, not August or September.
Karen Bowden
Thank you. Anyone else?
Unidentified speaker
And although, you know, going back hundreds of years, our government has probably never been what you want to call perfect.
They have always tried, through Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, all these different things, to help people, health care, to help people live a better life.
Karen Bowden
Anyone else?
Joyce
Hi, my name is Joyce, and voting rights are very important to me. My family's been here for at least five generations, and the ability to make change and have your voice heard is very important.
And also the opportunity to go to school and to get an education, to move yourself forward. I was the only one in my class when I went to school, would be in Northern Methodist, and there were very few people who looked like me at the time. But we need to change that.
When you see people who look like us, then that gives other people the incentive to go forward.
Thank you.
Diane
I'm Diane, and I am so proud to have been born in an era when women had the right to choose, we had the right to vote, we had the right to say what we want to say, do what we want to do, and worship how we want to worship.
And all of those things are becoming endangered. So that's why I'm here.
Thank you.
Reverend Bernard Thompson
Good morning. I'm Reverend Bernard Thompson.
I was 11 years old when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. I remember real live atrocities that went on in my youth. But in spite of all of that, I'm proud to be an American.
We have the best show going on the face of God's green earth, and it's borne out by the fact that so many people want to come here.
Thank you.
Karen Bowden
Do we have anyone else? Come on up. Come on down.
Shelley
My name is Shelley, and I've spent my life educating children, teaching them how to paint.
And the one thing that I'm thinking about is how we're closing down this country to immigration. Immigration is what made this country great. My parents, grandparents all came over from different countries. And now we're shutting down the border just because of the color of the skin.
Thank you.
Karen Bowden
Thank you. OK. OK. I can do that. OK, we're going to move along because it's getting very hot.
The next thing I want to do is invite you to join me to sing “You're a Grand Old Flag.” OK, my singers, get it together.
[They sing “You're a Grand Old Flag.”]
OK, next, I would like to introduce L.J. Holloway, the Democratic candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Florida's 4th Congressional District. Please join me in welcoming L.J.
LaShonda “L.J.” Holloway
Good morning, my fellow Americans.
I am waving this flag because yes, we are about to celebrate 250 years. But as our nation celebrates 250 years, I ask you to look at this flag not as a symbol that belongs to one party or one ideology. But I also ask that you look at it as a promise that belongs to all of us.
God, reclaim this flag because I, too, am America. The hands that built the White House looked like mine. However, those builders were denied the very inalienable rights our nation proclaims.
That is the contradiction in our history, but it does not have to define our future.
Every day we teach our children to place their hands over their hearts and pledge allegiance to the flag. And we ask them to say one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
But I ask you, if we are indivisible, why are we so divided? And more importantly, what are you doing to make sure that these not-so-United States of America is united?
As we celebrate 250 years of America, let us choose equality over erasure. Let us tell the untold story of this history. A history where people who look like me were once counted as only three-fifths for representation.
A history where Black women marched beside women demanding the right to vote but were left behind. On March 3rd, 1913, women marched in the suffrage movement. Black women who were members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated marched also. However, they left them behind, and they did not earn the right to vote until 1965. So I say again, we must tell the untold history of the past 250 years.
We must also know that history isn't meant to divide us. It is meant to remind us how far we still must go together. How far we still must go together.
You cannot serve the people if you don't love the people, and that's all the people. I am running to serve all the people because I believe that public service begins with we the people. You all learned the preamble, and the very first three words say, “We the people.”
Notwithstanding any of that, again, I say we are the people, and we must go together. And I am here to say that if I am elected, I will not only fight for all the people, and not just those who agree with me, and not just those who look like me, but every family, every neighborhood, regardless of who you love, regardless of your zip code, because I, too, am America.
And if we are going to celebrate 250 years, let us finally become the nation we teach our children, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Again, I am LaShonda L.J. Holloway. I hope you will vote L.J. Holloway for a better day. But let us all celebrate 250 together. Together, together.
Thank you. Thank you.
Karen Bowden
Thank you, L.J. Thank you. We appreciate you coming out today and joining us.
So now we're going to sing “God Bless America.” It's on the back of your sheet.
[They sing “God Bless America.”]
OK, right now I would like to introduce Chadd Charland, and Chadd is running as the non-party-affiliated candidate for the Florida House, District 15. Welcome, Chadd.
Chadd Charland
My name is Chadd Charland. I live in Fernandina Beach.
I am running as a non-party-affiliated candidate for State House in District 15, which includes all of Nassau County.
America fought for its freedom as a nation, and in the 250 years since, Americans have been fighting for their freedoms as individuals: Native Americans and African Americans and women and immigrants and LGBTQ people and the disabled.
Freedom in America has never been given. Whatever freedom people in this country enjoy has always been taken. Taken first from the British, and subsequently from the powerful interests who wish to have freedom as their exclusive privilege: white privilege, male privilege, the privilege of the wealthy and the powerful. That privilege and the attempts to exclude all Americans from the pleasure of freedom is shockingly apparent today.
America's best-told story is told when thinking about its promises of freedom, promises long unfulfilled, and the people who fought, who took that freedom and made it their own.
And one of the best examples resides right here on Amelia Island, and that is American Beach.
In an era of rampant racial terror and violence, when America had abandoned Reconstruction and equality for so-called redemption of the white race and the previous social hierarchy that kept Black people subjugated, Jacksonville's Abraham Lincoln Lewis started an insurance company for Black people because no one else was willing to help pay for their funerals.
He started that company and became Florida's first Black millionaire. With that money, instead of buying yachts and underage girls like the billionaire Epstein class has done today, he bought land on Amelia Island for a resort that would welcome Black people when Black people were forbidden from entering the water elsewhere in this state and in this nation.
That was American Beach: recreation without humiliation.
Now imagine seeing that beach and that ocean and then looking at the color of your skin and finding it was the wrong color to be allowed to go in that water.
Then imagine going to American Beach from all over this country and feeling that sand between your toes and feeling that water on your legs and knowing what recreation without humiliation was all about.
American Beach was one of the only places in America during Jim Crow segregation where Black people were welcomed into the water.
That is American history. Abraham Lincoln Lewis is American history, the best example of American history: someone who overcame, someone who achieved, someone who then gave back, and who has a legacy that carries on to this day through his granddaughters MaVynee Betsch, the Beach Lady, who protected NaNa Dune, and Joyce, my friend here, has a sticker with the Beach Lady on her car. And you need to get me one of those because the Beach Lady was bad, and that is bad with two Ds.
The Beach Lady has been gone for many years now, but her sister, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, one of the most distinguished and brilliant and dignified people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, continues living at American Beach after a legendary career in academia and education and public service.
You cannot move through America without understanding its history, and you can't understand American history without recognizing Black history.
And Black history changed my life. American Beach, when I learned of that story after moving here in 2012, changed my life. Knowing what happened there, knowing the extent of the struggles, the systemic obstacles which African Americans are presented with to this day, changed how I see this country.
It motivated me to run for political office because, learning Black history, I recognize the amount of work that continues to need to be done to assure the promises of our founding documents are enjoyed by all citizens.
Thank you.
Karen Bowden
OK. Yeah. OK, we got one more.
We're now going to sing “This Land Is Your Land.”
[They sing “This Land Is Your Land.”]
Our next speaker, I'd like to introduce Nicole Kresse, chair of the Democratic Club of Amelia Island and Nassau Community Voices.
Nicole Kresse
Oh, good morning, everyone. Morning, morning. I always have to follow Chadd. Can you guys hear me?
I don't know how I get this rotation, so I just want to remind everyone that America is big enough for all of us, and we all have a role to play in moving America toward a more perfect union.
The preamble of our Constitution states — and yes, I am a nerd. And yes, I am of the age that I automatically go to Schoolhouse Rock and I want to sing it, and I'm a terrible singer.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I don't know about you, but it's always been clear to me that the best of America is our melting pot. We are every color and every creed. It makes us undeniably unique and wonderful, and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. And beyond that? Beyond that, we are our best when we are united around liberty, inclusion, and progress.
Just look at history. The abolition of slavery was led by leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman to bring about rights for the Black community here.
That was followed by Reconstruction Amendments led by Ulysses S. Grant and Thaddeus Stevens, which led to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which abolished slavery, established birthright citizenship and equal protection, and prohibited racial discrimination in voting for men.
We have the Progressive Era, led by Teddy Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, and Jane Addams, which expanded consumer protections, regulated monopolies, improved food safety, and promoted government accountability.
Women's suffrage was led by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells to guarantee the constitutional right to vote for women.
Labor reforms led by Frances Perkins and Samuel Gompers improved workplace safety, reduced child labor, and established a minimum wage and overtime protections.
The New Deal, with FDR and Frances Perkins, created the Social Security Administration, unemployment insurance, banking reforms, and major public works systems.
Desegregation and the civil rights movement, led by MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the Freedom Fighters, led to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, ending legal segregation and protecting voter rights.
The environmental movement, led by Rachel Carson and Nixon, for all his other flaws, created the EPA and the Clean Air and Clean Water Act.
There were expansions of disability rights led by Justin Dart Jr. and Judith Heumann, culminating in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibited discrimination based on disability.
We've seen progress in LGBTQ rights led by Harvey Milk and Marsha P. Johnson, which repealed discriminatory laws and legalized same-sex marriage.
I want to tell you, it's clear to me that freedom has never been free, and all these pushes toward a more perfect union came with tremendous sacrifice. We need to sacrifice and take action again.
If the suffragettes and the freedom fighters hadn't been ten toes down, if so many past heroes had said, “It doesn't affect me,” or, “Someone else will fix this,” where would our country be?
It wouldn't be the America we've known. It wouldn't be my America. I don't know about you, but I damn sure won't sit by and watch us go back to oppression. We deserve better.
I've heard so many people say, “Oh, but what can I do?” Everything. Anything. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Your community needs you, and so does your country.
Just because we haven't seen the complete dissolution of democracy or war on our soil in our lifetime doesn't mean we can't recognize this moment for what it is.
I know what comes next, having lived and worked abroad in war zones and post-conflict zones. If we do not stop the pendulum swing of racism, fascism, and corruption that we are seeing, we lose it all.
Our country and posterity require that we have courage and we take action to defend our democracy and stand up for human rights for all.
If you haven't registered to vote, do it immediately. Your voice is your power. They would not be working so damn hard to steal our voting rights if they didn't know we had the power. Make sure you vote at every level, in every election.
Find a civic club to join and get involved in building a better today and tomorrow. We'd love you to join the Nassau Democrats via DCAI or the Young Dems.
Unified Nassau is clearly doing amazing work too, and we're all working together to build increased voter education and build a cohesive and collaborative structure here to improve our community and drive local change.
Raise your hand if you're in DCAI. Take note. Raise your hand if you're in the Young Dems. Raise your hand if you're in the Black Caucus. Raise your hand if you're in Unified Nassau. You can grab one of these people and ask how to get engaged.
Find a candidate or two that you love and support them. Politics is a hard and thankless job for the ones who are doing it for the right reasons, to truly serve the public. The ones who need a seat at the table — we need to support them so that they can overturn that table.
Find a community initiative or group to give back and build a better world here. We would love to have you in Nassau Community Voices to improve our community. Barnabas is doing great work on the Island. America's Youth is raising our future and supporting deeply underserved youth. There is no absence of organizations that would benefit from your time and your talent.
If you can't volunteer, donate, as foreign funding cuts have ravaged the nonprofit community. As a former USAID implementing partner and current nonprofit leader, I can attest to this personally.
Show the Black and brown community that you stand with them, and with our LGBTQ+ community, and with people with disabilities. We are better together. Everyone deserves dignity and respect.
And dig in for the long haul. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable. Progress doesn't come easy. It hasn't.
In the past, civil rights advanced with systematic boycott. Sustained strikes brought labor and health reform. In addition to voting and taking action locally, we must recognize the power of our collective action or inaction.
We've seen it work already, boycotting Tesla and CBS and Disney. Minneapolis and other cities have stood up against ICE. Albanian citizens are shutting their country down now. Ukraine has stood against a terrorist state for over three years.
We need to dig in and make it impossible for them to ignore us, to let them know we will not sit by and watch them dismantle civil liberties. Not in our America.
Shout out. What else have you done to fight back and to fight for others?
Write postcards. What else? Make phone calls. Protest from our office. Run for office. Contribute. Contribute. Educate on gun safety and other issues. What else? Vote. Contact your congressman. Good luck finding them. That's why we need awesome candidates.
Awesome. It's going to take all of us working together to make sure everyone knows that America is big enough for all of us and that we all have a role in moving America toward a more perfect union.
Thank you all.
Karen Bowden
OK, we're going to wrap up because it's getting very hot, but I'd like to invite —
You were going to, we were going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you like to speak about that, or would you like to lead the Pledge of Allegiance?
Stacy Brown-Preliou
OK, so I was thinking this morning about the Pledge of Allegiance and what the words actually mean.
And as children, you know, we're taught the words, but we're not necessarily taught the definition of some of the words in it.
So when we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, what we're doing is saying that we're going to remain loyal to our country and to the symbolism that that flag carries with it.
A republic means that, as citizens, we elect people to go into office to represent us. That is the definition of a republic.
When we have people in office that are not representing our best interests, they need to be fired. They need to be removed. We need to send people to elected offices, whether it's city commissioner, president, and anything in between. For the republic to work, the people in office have to represent the interests of the people that they're serving.
Unfortunately, that is not what's happening today. We have people that are in office because they want to be in office. They want power, but they're not working for the people.
I did say earlier, contact your congressman. I think it was appropriate. I was writing mine every week, and yes, asking for a reply on everything. Ain't heard from him. Got a couple of form letters, alright.
Next thing, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Indivisible meaning that nothing should be able to divide us as Americans in this country.
And what has happened, unfortunately, is the people in power use a divide-and-conquer strategy. They have always used it, and they will continue to use it because it's effective and it works.
If they can keep all of us distracted and fighting each other and fighting culture wars, and have us looking at each other, they're hoping that we'll never take enough time to look up at the 1% and what they are doing.
We're wasting a lot of time being divided through a system that was created to keep us in this situation and to continue to keep poor, working-class people in the lower class.
But the truth is — I don't know if anybody in this audience truly knows a billionaire. I don't know anybody that knows any.
The truth is that we have more in common with each other than we're ever going to have with that 1% billionaire class that is effectively controlling our government through funding candidates, lobbying, and everything else.
Again, our representative is supposed to be representing our interest, not the interest of big business, billionaires, and people who want more.
There's enough here for everybody. We don't have to be in opposition with each other. We shouldn't be in opposition with each other.
So again, when we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we want to think about — again, it should be indivisible, and with liberty and justice for all. Not for some. Not for people who are rich and can afford good attorneys. Not for people that are in power that's not being held accountable. Not for people that aren't being investigated the way that they should be by the people that we sent to represent us.
The checks and balances that I learned in civics class right now are not working. But if they did work the way they're supposed to work, then a lot of the stuff that's happening wouldn't happen. But again, they're not representing us. They have other interests.
So we are going to say the Pledge of Allegiance, but I did want to kind of go back and make us really think through the words that we're using.
Karen Bowden
OK, so whoever wants to lead that. Before we do, I just have one comment, and it's really a question.
And if you haven't read Donald Lewis's Substack, the question I leave you with before we do the Pledge of Allegiance is: Is the football craze that's going on right now going to unite America?
That could potentially be one of the things that shows us who we really are, welcoming people from other countries everywhere across the country and supporting them.
So I just throw that out as a question, but right now there's a flag everywhere. So let's do the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you all for coming out today.
