Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom: 30,000 March on Washington for Voting Rights

On May 17, 1957, the third anniversary of Brown v. Board, 30,000 people march on the Lincoln Memorial in the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, the largest civil rights demonstration in Washington to that point. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his 'Give Us the Ballot' speech, demanding voting rights as the key to all other civil rights. A. Philip Randolph and Roy Wilkins co-organize the event. The march builds momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1957.