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Project Democracy 20/20

Project Democracy 20/20 is a major Greensboro History Museum initiative exploring American democracy through exhibitions, public programs and innovative community connections.

ActivitiesExhibitionsNews

All political power is vested in and derived from the people only…

North Carolina Declaration of Rights
1776

Exhibitions

NC Democracy: Eleven Elections

What has democracy meant to different people at different moments in NC history? What was at stake in elections in 1835, 1898, 1920 or 1990? How do decisions then continue to matter now?

Explore choices and change across 11 elections between 1776 and 2010. NC Democracy: Eleven Elections illustrates the twists and turns of who could participate, how voters cast their ballots, and what influenced decisions that continue to shape what democracy means today. You’ll discover the documents that transformed how our state’s democracy has worked. You’ll confront changing values about what or who was important. You’ll follow the actions that have opened up and shut down opportunities for equal participation. Together let’s check our democracy settings and recognize the power of our vote.

NC Democracy: Eleven Elections is on view at the museum April 2022-July 2025. After that, the virtual exhibition will continue to be available online.

Visit the Virtual Exhibit

Project Democracy 20/20

Democracy Activities

How can museums support democracy?

In 2022, Florida State University Art Education provided an overview of Greensboro History Museum’s Project Democracy 20/20 initiative for their Instagram audience.

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Democracy Tables

Read about our collaboration with the UNCG Department of Communication Studies to create spaces for collaborative dialogue around issues important to Greensboro. Our 2020-21 conversations and You Asked! sessions explored Voting; Police, Community & Justice and Housing & Equity.

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Democracy Education Trunks

Created with the support of  North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Democracy Trunks give teachers and students tools to explore democratic ideals, principles, structures, and rights through hands-on interactives.

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Project Democracy 20/20

Gerrymander Madness

The Gerrymander Madness VR game lets players try to make their own political map.

Learn more in this segment from WUNC’s The State of Things

Have a VR headset of your own? Download Gerrymander Madness to play at home!

In 2025, partners CrossComm worked to develop a ChromeBook version of the game as part of the Democracy Traveling Trunks project.

Project Democracy 20/20

Why Democracy?

This project will spark discussions relevant to the presidential election year, the 150th anniversary of the Fifteenth Amendment, the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote and the 60th anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-Ins. We will explore the questions:

  • What is democracy?
  • Who votes and how?
  • Beyond the ballot, how have we used our right to petition and protest?
  • What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens?
  • How does engaging with history activate citizens’ participation in their government?

Thanks to our sponsors

Project Democracy 20/20 is supported in part by the Triad Pan Asian American Network Giving Circle of CFGG and North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Exhibitions

    American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith

    More than just waging a war of independence, American revolutionaries took a great leap of faith and established a new government based on the sovereignty of the people. It was truly a radical idea that entrusted the power of the nation not in a monarchy but in its citizens. Each generation since continues to question how to form “a more perfect union” around this radical idea.