The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence arrives at a moment when Americans are arguing not just about politics — but about our nation’s history.

As President Donald Trump calls for the removal of what he labels “divisive” history from public institutions, a new documentary from Ken Burns revisits the American Revolution with all of its complexity, contradiction and competing visions of freedom.

In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay brings together professors and students at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia along with community members for a public conversation. There’s talk about what the revolution meant then, who it was for, and what it means now — at a time when questions about executive power, citizenship and belonging feel anything but settled.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from WETA and the CRC Foundation.

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A graphic for Ken Burns' newest documentary series, "The American Revolution" on PBS. It features a silhouette of a man on a horse during a battle and the words "We The People" seen in the background. — The PBS documentary series *The American Revolution*, produced by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, premiered Nov. 16, 2025, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the war’s start. The eight-year project traces how 13 British colonies rebelled, won independence and formed a new government that reshaped the continent and inspired democratic movements worldwide.

Outside a large building on a cloudy day. — West Virginia Public Broadcasting hosted a community screening and discussion of *The American Revolution*, on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

*Photo courtesy of Marshall University*

Learn more about the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation.
Learn more about Marshall University.

A man in his early 60s stand in front of an audience. Behind him is a panel of speakers. Above the panelists is the lower half of Ken Burns' American Revolution poster. — Before the program begins, *Us & Them* host **Trey Kay** welcomes the audience and outlines the evening’s format ahead of a live taping and discussion of *The American Revolution*.

*Photo by Nolan Duncan*

A photo at a distance showing all panelists for a panel discussion sitting at a table with a green tablecloth. Above them is a poster for Ken Burns' The American Revolution. — Members of a five-person panel — two Marshall University professors and three students — gather for a community discussion before an audience in the Encova Auditorium at Marshall University’s Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation in Huntington, West Virginia, ahead of a screening of excerpts from *The American Revolution*.

*Photo by Nolan Duncan*

A man with grey hair and a gray beard and mustache wearing a gray t-shirt. He sits in front of a microphone and two water bottles. — **Kevin Barksdale** is a professor of early American history at Marshall University whose research focuses on the Appalachian frontier during the Revolutionary era and on Native American history in the Southeast.

*Photo by Nolan Duncan*

“My experience with students is that students want unvarnished history. They don’t want the Disney version of American history. That’s boring, right? And that’s not the way it works.

I try to point out that these are people that we’re talking about. They’re flawed humans with different kinds of ambitions and desires and counter-ambitions. And if you think about the past in that kind of way, it allows you to put yourself back there, maybe relate to what’s going on and think about those sorts of things.

I’ve never experienced students coming up to me and saying, ‘Look, I want you to simplify this, romanticize this, and I don’t want any of the most unsavory aspects of it to come about because it hurts my feelings.’ I don’t have that experience. I don’t understand that experience.”

— Kevin Barksdale

Learn more about Kevin Barksdale.

A man with salt and pepper hair and glasses speaks on a panel. He wears a black jacket and red checkered shirt. — **George Davis** is a professor of political science at Marshall University whose work focuses on American political development, constitutional law and the evolution of democratic institutions.

*Photo by Nolan Duncan*

“It’s easy sometimes in academia to look at the revolution or the founding and say this was terrible, and ask if there’s hypocrisy there.

But it’s really important to think about how the ideals that come out of the revolution—the founding, the Declaration of Independence—have been used for multiple social justice issues since then.

Part of the American story is believing in things like liberty and equality and self-determination. And we don’t take a lot of time to really think about what those terms mean. Unless we interrogate our history—what they meant to the colonists, and how they didn’t always live up to them—it forces us to ask what we actually mean when we use those words today. Without telling these stories, we can’t have a sense of what those ideas mean.”

— George Davis

Learn more about George Davis.

A younger woman with dark hair and wearing a formal, black shirt. She sits on a panel of speakers. — **...**