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Brian Lear on WNIC, on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom.

And while we all remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, I have a dream speech.

Some of what's forgotten is that the marches on that day 60 years ago gather to advocate for a number of economic policies

like a national minimum wage and a federal jobs program to bring about racial and economic equity in the United States writ large.

Well, Dr. King spoke of an integrated future where children were not judged by the color of their skin.

He understood that without addressing the economic oppression of Black America and other poor people, this dream could not be realized.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington experts at the Economic Policy Institute, the Progressive Think Tank, released a report tying the march of back then to the economics of now.

This report is titled Chasing the Dream of Equity, How policy has shaped racial economic disparities.

And it examines the connection between racial inequality and policy in the United States.

It uncovers realities that we live in today, such as that civil rights era policies aimed at creating a more equitable society, have in many respects failed to do so.

And sadly, it provides policy suggestions that they feel are still necessary for today on how we can move towards that goal of economic equity here 60 years later.

In just a minute, we're going to talk to a writer of the report, Kyle Moore, economist with the Economic Policy Institute's program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at EPI.

But first, just to give you a little example of how we're still, tragically, talking about some of the same things today, here's a clip of March Director A. Philip Randolph from that 1963 speech.

Look for the enemies of Medicare, of higher minimum wages, of social security, of federal aid to education.

And there you will find the enemy of the Negro, the coalition of Dixacrats and reactionary Republicans that seek to dominate the Congress.

Thank you Philip Randolph 60 years ago, are we talking about the same things still today? Yes, Kyle Moore, welcome to WNYC. Thank you for joining us today.

Brian, great to be back on the show for sure. And it's always great to hear the legend A. Philip Randolph true champion of civil rights and liberal rights.

Absolutely. Remind us, as a point of history, what exactly were the policies that March is advocated for through the March on Washington that were economic in nature, your report tying the March then to the economics of today lists them very specifically.

For sure. And, you know, I want to be clear, I was not the lead author on this report. The other, the lead author was a guy, my colleague, Adoale Mai did a great job pulling this report together.

But yeah, we had, you know, that March had a lot of specific economic demands that folks really don't keep in mind when I think about the March, I think the March was just about voting rights, right?

But there were some very specific economic demands here, some of which were, again, a national minimum wage active will give all Americans at decent standard of living.

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