On May 17, 1957, the third anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent civil rights leaders convened the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom—a gathering of 20,000 at the Lincoln Memorial to urge the federal government to uphold the promises inherent in that Supreme Court decision.
The gathering predated passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by eight years, yet Dr. King used his time to manifest the power of opportunity to secure voting rights.
Dr. King’s remarks, in part:
“Three years ago, the Supreme Court of this nation rendered in simple, eloquent and unequivocal language a decision which will long be stenciled on the mental sheets of succeeding generations. For all men of goodwill, this May 17 decision came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of human captivity. It came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of disinherited people throughout the world who had dared only to dream of freedom.
“Unfortunately, this noble and sublime decision has not gone without opposition. This opposition has often risen to ominous proportions. Many states have risen up in open defiance. The legislative halls of the South ring loud with such words as ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification.’
“But even more, all types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition. And so our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote. [Audience:] (Yes)
“Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.
“Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the South (All right) and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.
“Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs (Yeah) into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.
“Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill (All right now) and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a ‘Southern Manifesto’ because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice. (Tell ’em about it)
“Give us the ballot (Yeah), and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy (Yeah), and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who will, who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine.
“Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court’s decision of May 17th, 1954.” (That’s right)
We have the ballot in our hands in the form of the votes we can cast on Nov. 5, 2024. And everything Dr. King prophetically said we could do if we had the ballot, we now have both the ballot and the power to do.
Our enemy is not those who would oppose or attempt to block our right to vote. We are our own enemy if we allow apathy and indifference to convince us that our vote does not count.
The only question before us is this: Will we use our vote to protect and improve our lives, or will we surrender our rights to those who would set us back to the days of Jim Crow and slavery?
It’s in our hands this Election Day on Nov. 5. What will you do?
Dr. John E. Warren is the publisher of the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint newspaper.