WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)

Description

In this series of WSB newsfilm clips from the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom held in Washington D.C. on May 17, 1957, congressman Adam Clayton Powell and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak about African American attempts to gain civil rights in the United States.The clips begin by showing the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. the audience fills the area between the monument and the reflecting pool and back towards the Washington Monument. A man in a wide-brimmed hat takes a picture with a camera. An unidentified man appears to speak although his comments are not recorded at first; later he indicates the influence Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, Democratic majority leader, can have on the 1958 election, and the crowd cheers and waves handkerchiefs in response. Leaders of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom had asked the audience to focus on the event's religious nature by waving handkerchiefs instead of clapping during the speeches. An African American man with a white beard stands among those listening to the speakers. Next, New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. says that he cares more about civil rights than about other issues discussed in Congress including tidelands oil, natural gas, and private versus public hour; the crowd cheers again. The listening crowd includes many people who are sitting and standing near the memorial, including nurses in caps who line the sidelines. Finally, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wearing his formal church robes, declares that if African Americans are given the right to vote they will...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia