Nonprofit Quarterly published a new op-ed by EJS President Lisa Holder, “From the Birthing Chamber to the Ballot Box: A Choice Between Erasure and Equality,” as part of the #WeTheCivic: America 250 series, a national narrative movement to put the multiracial nonprofit and civil society workers, organizations, and communities at the center of how the United States tells the stories and histories of 250 years of fighting for a true, vibrant democracy for all.
Read the introduction to Lisa’s op-ed below and the full piece here.
From the Birthing Chamber to the Ballot Box: A Choice Between Erasure and Equality
By Lisa Holder, Special to Nonprofit Quarterly
August 18, 2026
The mythology of America is one of unblemished progress and triumph—a narrative amplified with renewed force as the United States continues to celebrate its 250th year. But those of us whose existence has always been a death-defying freedom struggle, propose an alternate observance—one that requires us all to reckon with the reality we are living in and the injustices that have shaped the society we’ve inherited.
We challenge this destructive myth by calling for a re-examination of the continued struggle for true equity and freedom. This is imperative as the very tools of democracy’s survival are currently under siege and being dismantled by an Executive and Supreme Court willing to erode its foundations.
I came to advancing the work of civil rights through research, policy and advocacy, and recommitted to it through personal loss. Like countless Black birthing mothers before and after, I lost my firstborn, and subsequently many parts of myself to a totally preventable disease: American racism.
Read the full op-ed on nonprofitquarterly.org.