The Successes and Failures of the Freedom Budget and What They Mean for Today’s Progressive Battles

In the 1960s, prominent Civil Rights leaders proposed a Freedom Budget For All Americans, a policy proposal pamphlet with ambitious goals such as the abolition of poverty, universal healthcare and housing, fair wages for workers, a progressive tax, and more. These economic goals were meant to alleviate racial inequality by attacking the deep roots of inequality in the United States. While the Freedom Budget did not pass, the movement for the goals was incredibly remarkable and modern progressive movements like that for the Green New Deal can learn much from the successes and failures of the Freedom Budget. This thesis aims to identify strengths and weaknesses, analyze the causes behind them, and synthesize these factors into the modern context of the Green New Deal's fight.