The Freedom Movement redefined America when it put an end to second-class citizenship for Black people in the U.S. Beginning in the 1940s, the Freedom Movement used the courts, demonstrations, Freedom Rides, boycotts, sit-ins, the securing of the ballot for Black share croppers in the South, the organizing of the Black communities into potent state and local political forces — the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Lowndes County Freedom Party — are two examples, and challenging police violence in urban areas to erase the definitions of a white supremacist America.
The Freedom Movement ended federally sanctioned segregation in America by successfully litigating the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. It was responsible for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill banning discrimination in public facilities and employment and the 1965 Voting Rights Bill that eliminated literacy test, poll taxes and voting discrimination. These federal laws codified the changed racial definitions in America.
Additionally, the Freedom Movement, with its call for Black Power, energized white women, the LGBTQ communities, and even senior citizens to use their political power to benefit a majority of Americans. As a result, a broad-based coalition was able to pass legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid (1965), the Food Stamp Act (1964) and the Head Start (1965) programs that are with us today. The political environment of the 1960s and 1970s, also allowed for the establishment of federal Cabinet level departments for Housing and Community Development, Education and the Environment.
The Freedom Movement created space for millions of Americans to participate in the political and economic life of this country. It valued majority rule and allowed the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion to define America.
Unfortunately, while the Freedom Movement saw the expansion of majority rule as political and economic solutions, MAGA saw it as a political problem. Conversely, MAGA's advocacy of minority rule continues to be a problem for the Freedom Movement.
The ongoing battles to define America has been taking place between those in favor of majority or minority rule for the past 75 years. The battles have been and are being waged in the federal and state courts, elections at every level, in the U.S. Congress, in state legislatures, in local libraries, on college campuses, in the social media, in the press, in the Democratic and Republican parties, in church organizations, and with the expenditure of federal, state, and local budgets.
Presently, the MAGA and the Trump Administration's efforts to install the minority rule of the 1950s, would allow those at the economic top to maximize income and profit without regard to political constraints or consequences.
To achieve its objective of minority rule, MAGA and Donald Trump know no boundaries. During Trump's first Administration, the New York Times reported that it had documented 30,000 lies by the President.
In 2020, after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to President Biden, he asserted "alternative facts" that the election was stolen. Trump called on MAGA to come to Washington on January 6, 2021 to intimidate the Congress of the United States to not certify the results of the 2020 elections. As we remember, MAGA rioted at the Capitol.
In 2024, upon becoming President, Trump acted on his "alternative facts" and established new political and economic definitions for America. The January 6th rioters became patriots. Those who prosecuted the rioters were fired from their jobs at the Justice Department. The media publications were sued because their stories did not comply with "alternative facts." Law firms and businesses were denied business opportunities with federal and state governments until they obeyed MAGA's wishes. In 2025 and 2026, Trump uses the Department of Justice to engage in political prosecutions to settle old scores.
MAGA also used the clout of the Trump Administration to impact education. The Department of Education has been effectively shuttered. Federal research grants were and are denied colleges that did not support white male supremacy. Most of the elite universities found reasons to end programs that supported the truth about Africans Americans in America. Books were banned that did not pass the MAGA test.
MAGA used "alternative facts" to define immigrants as "the worst of the worst" criminals. The federal government used masked ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agents as a gestapo force to arrest, abuse and warehouse people without judicial permission or due process regardless of their immigration status. We all owe the people of Minneapolis, and especially Renee Good and Alex Pretti a debt of gratitude for standing up for those who were being abused by the federal agents.
The political and economic definitional changes that many of want will not come as a result of the 2026 or 2028 elections. It took the Freedom Movement 30 years to redefine America and we will have to spend the next 20 years fighting to ensure that we continue to succeed. To ensure success, we must:
Copyright © Courtland Cox
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