Jacqueline Foertsch

Freedom’s Ring examines the debate between “freedom” and “equality” in popular texts from the Black Power, anti-war/ counterculture, and women’s liberation movements of 1960s and 1970s. Its central finding is that although many struggled and died for it in the civil rights era, freedom (e.g., the vote, integrated bus rides, sex without consequences via the Pill) is ultimately free–costing officialdom little if anything to fully implement–while equality (with respect to jobs, salaries, education, housing, and health care) will forever be the much more expensive nut to crack.