Free Speech & Peace

The influence of music spans the arc of human history. From police encounters over Elvis Presley’s performances to radio bans on Nina Simone’s civil rights songs to Congressional hearings about John Denver’s lyrics, our country has seen what it looks like to try and silence artists. We’ve also seen them fight back.   Ice-T is one […]

The greatest advances in human progress — personal, social, and scientific — flow from our ability to exchange different ideas and engage with each other freely and productively. Today, loud and extreme voices and views are often stifling the sharing of diverse views, making it more challenging to solve some of society’s most pressing problems.   […]

Americans support free speech. Study after study shows that people across all walks of life believe it’s a cornerstone of a liberal democracy. Free speech – in theory – should be a unifying issue in what feels like an increasingly divided country.  In reality, it’s more complex.   Humans are hardwired to fear and shut down […]

Americans feel more divided than ever. Polarization is on the rise. We’re experiencing radical economic and social change.  And our trust in institutions and in each other is dropping.  Yet most Americans are tired of the divisiveness. We’re looking for ways to collaborate with people who share different views and come from different backgrounds. But […]

Stand Together Trust partners are engaged daily in the work of openness by protecting the public square and ensuring that people can collaborate across differences.  Below is a small sampling of their work and its impact.  The Associated Press visited a U.S. Government class in Pennsylvania as part of its examination of the deep political […]

Ideological divides about how to address policing, poverty, and racial injustice can seem unbridgeable.  But ACT NOW, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing persistent social inequalities, has shown people can come together. Currently in 15 U.S. cities, ACT NOW convenes citizens, local leaders, law enforcement, faith organizations, and others who want to unite to improve their […]

Is America becoming a society of censorship? The 2022 Winter Olympics are over — along with the speech codes Beijing enforced — but athletes still have to muzzle their voices. Both The New York Times and Fox Business have explored how, even at home, athletes, brands, and sports franchises are keeping quiet about human rights abuses in order to […]

Could conversations across the U.S. combat bigotry and bias? We learn from Samar Ali, founder of Millions of Conversations.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education was founded more than 20 years ago to defend civil liberties on college campuses.

One Small Step and StoryCorps have brought nearly 800 people together in pairs for conversation across 40 cities.