Dear Sharra, Today is the 60th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march – where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech – is widely known as the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, and it precipitated the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. We should celebrate not only the genius and achievement of Dr. King and a former generation, but also dedicate ourselves to the still unfinished work.
We all know this important story very well, so I want to talk about a crucial aspect of the story that is rarely discussed.
The march was organized by democratic socialist civil rights leaders A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, and after winning civil rights and voting rights legislation, Rustin, Randolph, and Dr. King shifted to a new set of demands: the Freedom Budget For All Americans. Its goal was the "abolition of poverty, guaranteed full employment, fair prices for farmers, fair wages for workers, housing and healthcare for all, the establishment of progressive tax, and fiscal policies that respected the needs of working families." |
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| Randolph called for the "full and final triumph" of the civil rights movement, to be achieved by going beyond civil rights, linking the goal of racial justice with the goal of economic justice for all people in the United States" and doing so "by rallying massive segments of the 99% of the American people in a powerfully democratic and moral crusade." Rustin felt that a program of racial equality had to be "so intertwined with progressive economic and social policies as to make it impossible to choose one without the other."
Historian Paul LeBlanc summarized the budget's demands this way: - Restore and maintain full employment.
- Guarantee a minimum adequate income to all who cannot be so employed.
- Assure adequate income for all employed.
- Wipe out slum ghettoes and provide a decent home for every American family.
- Provide modern medical care for all Americans.
- Provide educational opportunities for all within the limits of their ambition, ability, and means.
- Wipe out other examples of neglect, including air and water pollution, transportation snarls, and inadequate use of our great natural resources.
- Correlate full employment with sustained production and economic growth
Randolph proclaimed that "The 'Freedom Budget' spells out a specific and factual course of action, step by step, to start in early 1967 toward the practical liquidation of poverty in the U.S. by 1975."
Too often, our media and education system talk about the Civil Rights Movement in ways that moderate its message and ignore its 'radical' elements in order to make it seem as though all the issues raised in the 1960s have been solved. Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech was an incredible, world-historical moment, but King did not stop there. He went on to advocate against U.S. militarism abroad and for universal economic demands that would abolish poverty as we know it. The Freedom Budget's core demands provided the cornerstones for King's next step: the Poor People's Campaign. Dr. King was organizing for the Poor People's Campaign and supporting a sanitation strike in Memphis when he was shot and killed.
When we look back at the Civil Rights Movement, we should not only celebrate its achievements – we should also work to finish what it started. That means a sweeping economic program in the spirit of the Freedom Budget. Our campaign is calling for a revival of the Freedom Budget, and I am the only Democratic (or Republican) candidate calling for similar economic policies to those laid out in 1965 by Randolph, Rustin, and Dr. King.
This is a critical moment for the United States, as there is a rumbling underneath the surface of things that are going to break through. The status quo is unsustainable, and things are going to break one way or the other. They will either break in the direction of great brotherhood and justice, or they will break in the direction of dystopia and chaos. Our campaign exists to provide the opportunity for the former, and to forestall the latter.
With my Economic Bill of Rights, my campaign is calling for a revival of the Freedom Budget.
It is not too late to dream.
It's not too late to get it done.
With your help, and through your generosity, we will. |
P.S. We need YOU!
We could not be doing this critical work without you. Your donation makes this possible. |
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