Professor Lucas Morel on America250

Professor Lucas Morel on America250

The head of W&L’s Politics Department discusses helping to plan America’s semiquincentennial celebrations.

(Morel in his office. | SOURCE: Washington and Lee University)

“From the start, we have had to acknowledge that our birth and our development has been mixed with setbacks, contradictions, imperfections … [but] we have made tremendous strides to living up to our ideals as expressed in the Declaration,” described Professor Lucas Morel.

Professor Lucas Morel, the John K. Boardman Jr. Professor of Politics and the head of the Politics Department at W&L, has a unique perspective on America’s 250th birthday celebrations. He serves on the United States Semiquincentennial Commission, commonly known as America250, which is tasked with federally organizing the celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026.

The bipartisan commission features eight members of Congress, with Morel as one of only two professors serving as commissioners. Morel was appointed as a commissioner by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in February of 2017. Having had no previous interaction with the Kentucky Republican, Morel is unsure what precipitated his appointment. However, he has “some idea” how it may have transpired, likely due to mutual acquaintances.

Morel wholeheartedly embraces the goal and mission of America250. “The year to come … will be a time of soul searching, especially in terms of the most formative figures of our nation’s revolutionary history,” he said, mentioning the legacies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as two figures whose legacies will be pondered. 

America250 was not designed to be the sole planning body for all semiquincentennial celebrations. “From the start, the commission has seen itself as less of a top-down” planning body for the local 250 celebrations, instead having “taken a very decentralized approach to getting the rest of the country on board.” According to Morel, many states have set up their own 250 commissions, with Virginia having “taken the lead” in the process. 

“We are not planning events for all 50 states … we are leaving the lion's share to be done by the state commissions, to allow them, their people, their citizens to determine their place in America’s history as it is tied to the birth of the country,” he described. Members of America250 hope to allow the citizens of each state to explore the linkage of their state’s history to the national founding, with America250 serving more as “an aggregator of … the things we see happening at the state level.” 

This decentralized view extends into America250’s educational component. “As we have been trying to get into the civic education side of this, we are getting behind folks and organizations that are already doing that sort of thing,” he said. “We are also encouraging the federal government, all the various agencies, to make America250 a focus, a theme, for their activities in 2026,” Morel added. America250 hopes to partner with all areas of the federal government to make the semiquincentennial a focus in 2026, working wth agencies like the National Park Service, services like the Armed Forces, and grantmaking organizations like the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The commission also hosts its own events, including “field trips to various prominent sites, like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.” America250 is partnering with other organizations to host competitions and essay contests for middle and high school students, with competitions in 2025 and 2026. “A good number of these kids have never been out of their city or their state … so we are using that as a way to reach really deeply into all the states … and touch at least a few lives on the ground.” America250 is also involved in recreating famous events from the Revolutionary era, including the Boston Tea Party.

One reason the commission focuses on facilitating events rather than directly hosting them is that “the original legislation [creating the commission] … had no money. There was zero funding for it, and any funding for us we had to raise.” The commission supported revising the legislation to allow it to request Congressional funding, a process that is still ongoing.

Other priorities for America250 include encouraging volunteers. The commission set up the group America Gives with the goal “to set a record for most volunteer hours by a single organized effort.” America Innovates, another offshoot of America250, features American inventors, and other efforts include creating a time capsule. 

America250 has also partnered with other organizations to provide educational materials on the American Revolution. These collaborations include a partnership with the National Constitution Center, leading to a forthcoming interactive Declaration of Independence, branching off the organization’s Interactive Constitution. Morel argued that this could be an invaluable resource, helping to answer questions about the document like: “What did they mean when they said ‘self-evident truths’ … what did they mean when they said ‘all men are created equal.’”

While only 13 states were represented in the Continental Congress during the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America250 “is designed to be national … to make everybody part of this celebration.” While the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission’s founding legislation focused on “the original states and key events of the war,” the commission’s leadership has focused on nationalizing the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. “It’s really meant to be a time for not only every state and territory, but every American, to think about the meaning of America for him: what is it that they value about being citizens of this country rather than another country?” Morel explained.

Additionally, there is a bipartisan Congressional caucus of members who support the Semisusquintential Commission’s goals, which has expanded to dozens of members from both parties in the House and Senate. “By the time 2026 comes around, I think everyone should be part of the America250 caucus,” Morel said, stressing the caucus was not directly related to the commission.

In America’s divisive political climate, America250’s goal of celebrating America’s birth and independence may fall prey to current divisions. Still, Morel was confident the organization could achieve its purpose, saying, “In the end, we hope we can demonstrate that it was a good thing that America was born.”