Black Democratic leaders recently announced the creation of Project FREEDOM, a plan dedicated to combat the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 outline.
Announced Thursday and first shared with ABC News, Project FREEDOM, created in part by Michael Blake, focuses on gaining votes from Black voters in four battleground states.
The plan aims to use town halls, community events, online campaigns, and phone banks to receive votes for the Democratic party. It will focus on targeting North Carolina, Las Vegas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, or the overall Tri-State area.
Project FREEDOM targets four main avenues- Freedom to Thrive, Freedom to Vote, Freedom to Learn and Freedom to Live.
Whereas Freedom to Thrive advocates for increased minimum wage to deal with inflation as well as other methods of helping with the cost of living, Freedom to Vote focuses on securing stronger voting rights and changing the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Freedom to Learn focuses on protecting the teaching of Black American history and providing an affordable path to higher learning.
Freedom to Live also advocates for the ability to live without “fear,” supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The law aims to hold police accountable for racial profiling and usage of force that often results in death. The announcement of Freedom to Live as part of Project FREEDOM comes just after the killing of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman, who was shot in the face by police officer Sean Grayson.
Our Freedoms are at Risk
— Michael Blake (@MrMikeBlake) July 25, 2024
But, we have the Freedom to Dream
Today, we launch PROJECT FREEDOM
Join us: https://t.co/VKcbgfFvCN https://t.co/ncqDzn2WPD
“Our Democracy is under siege and by a man and political machine that put themselves above all those in whom they detect ‘otherness,’” said Blake per ABC News. “We cannot afford to forget the pain inflicted on our people throughout Donald Trump’s administration, and we certainly cannot afford the destructiveness a second term would normalize.”
The creation of Project FREEDOM comes in response to the growing threat of Project 2025. Designed by conservatives aiming to have the project implemented for the next Republican president, at least 140 people who worked as part of the Trump administration helped create the 900-page roadmap.
Project 2025 aims to take down civil rights protection; along with targeting the legality of abortion pill mifepristone and access to abortions in general, the plan aims to downsize or remove agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, Justice and Health and Human Services.
Immigration will also be targeted as Project 2025 aims to finish building the wall alongside the U.S.-Mexico border and advocates for active-duty military alongside the border for the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Project 2025 aims to erase the country’s racist history, calling for the elimination of the Department of Education and teachings of Black history for the reinstatement of a “color-conscious society.” DEI programs, which were under attack by former president Trump, are also being targeted as they are being labeled as being discriminatory towards white people.
Through Project FREEDOM, Democratic leaders are working to protect these civil rights that are being attacked.
“Make no mistake: Communities of color are the frontline communities targeted by the poison that is Project 2025’s Christian Nationalist vision for the future, and Project FREEDOM is the antidote,” said the Democratic leaders who announced Project FREEDOM in a statement.
