"Give Us the Ballot," Address at the
Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
17 May 1957
Washington, D.C.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished platform associates, fellow Americans:
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 seventeenth 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. (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
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 seventeenth, 1954. (That's right)
In this juncture of our nation's history, there is an urgent need
for dedicated and courageous leadership. If we are to solve the
problems ahead and make racial justice a reality, this leadership
must be fourfold.
First, there is need for strong, aggressive leadership from the
federal government. So far, only the judicial branch of the government
has evinced this quality of leadership. If the executive and legislative
branches of the government were as concerned about the protection
of our citizenship rights as the federal courts have been, then
the transition from a segregated to an integrated society would
be infinitely smoother. But we so often look to Washington in vain
for this concern. In the midst of the tragic breakdown of law and
order, the executive branch of the government is all too silent
and apathetic. In the midst of the desperate need for civil rights
legislation, the legislative branch of the government is all too
stagnant and hypocritical.
This dearth of positive leadership from the federal government
is not confined to one particular political party. Both political
parties have betrayed the cause of justice. (Oh yes) The
Democrats have betrayed it by capitulating to the prejudices and
undemocratic practices of the southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans
have betrayed it by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of right
wing, reactionary northerners. These men so often have a high blood
pressure of words and an anemia of deeds. [laughter]
In the midst of these prevailing conditions, we come to Washington
today pleading with the president and members of Congress to provide
a strong, moral, and courageous leadership for a situation that
cannot permanently be evaded. We come humbly to say to the men in
the forefront of our government that the civil rights issue is not
an Ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about
by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal
moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation (Yes)
in the ideological struggle with communism. The hour is late. The
clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now, before it is too
late.
A second area in which there is need for strong leadership is from
the white northern liberals. There is a dire need today for a liberalism
which is truly liberal. What we are witnessing today in so many
northern communities is a sort of quasi-liberalism which is based
on the principle of looking sympathetically at all sides. It is
a liberalism so bent on seeing all sides, that it fails to become
committed to either side. It is a liberalism that is so objectively
analytical that it is not subjectively committed. It is a liberalism
which is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. (All right)
We call for a liberalism from the North which will be thoroughly
committed to the ideal of racial justice and will not be deterred
by the propaganda and subtle words of those who say: "Slow up for
a while; you're pushing too fast."
A third source that we must look to for strong leadership is from
the moderates of the white South. It is unfortunate that at this
time the leadership of the white South stems from the close-minded
reactionaries. These persons gain prominence and power by the dissemination
of false ideas and by deliberately appealing to the deepest hate
responses within the human mind. It is my firm belief that this
close-minded, reactionary, recalcitrant group constitutes a numerical
minority. There are in the white South more open-minded moderates
than appears on the surface. These persons are silent today because
of fear of social, political, and economic reprisals. God grant
that the white moderates of the South will rise up courageously,
without fear, and take up the leadership in this tense period of
transition.
I cannot close without stressing the urgent need for strong, courageous
and intelligent leadership from the Negro community. We need a leadership
that is calm and yet positive. This is no day for the rabble-rouser,
whether he be Negro or white. (All right) We must realize
that we are grappling with the most weighty social problem of this
nation, and in grappling with such a complex problem there is no
place for misguided emotionalism. (All right, That’s right)
We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom,
but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We
must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never
become bitter. I know how we feel sometime. There is the danger
that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the
tragic midnight of oppression—those of us who have been trampled
over, those of us who have been kicked about—there is the danger
that we will become bitter. But if we will become bitter and indulge
in hate campaigns, the new order which is emerging will be nothing
but a duplication of the old order. (Yeah, That's all right)
We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul
force. (Yeah) There is still a voice crying out through the
vista of time, saying: "Love your enemies (Yeah), bless them
that curse you (Yes), pray for them that despitefully use
you." (That's right. All right) Then, and only then, can
you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice
cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: "He who lives by
the sword will perish by the sword." (Yes, Lord) And history
is replete with the bleached bones of nations (Yeah) that
failed to follow this command. (All right) We must follow
nonviolence and love. (Yes, Lord)
Now, I’m not talking about a sentimental, shallow kind of love.
(Go ahead) I’m not talking about eros, which is a
sort of aesthetic, romantic love. I’m not even talking about philia,
which is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends.
But I'm talking about agape. (Yes sir) I'm talking
about the love of God in the hearts of men. (Yes) I’m talking
about a type of love which will cause you to love the person who
does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. (Go
ahead) We've got to love. (Oh yes)
There is another warning signal. We talk a great deal about our
rights, and rightly so. We proudly proclaim that three-fourths of
the peoples of the world are colored. We have the privilege of noticing
in our generation the great drama of freedom and independence as
it unfolds in Asia and Africa. All of these things are in line with
the unfolding work of Providence. But we must be sure that we accept
them in the right spirit. We must not seek to use our emerging freedom
and our growing power to do the same thing to the white minority
that has been done to us for so many centuries. (Yes) Our
aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must
not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God
is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and
yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race.
(Yes, All right) We must work with determination to create
a society (Yes), not where black men are superior and other
men are inferior and vice versa, but a society in which all men
will live together as brothers (Yes) and respect the dignity
and worth of human personality. (Yes)
We must also avoid the temptation of being victimized with a psychology
of victors. We have won marvelous victories. Through the work of
the NAACP, we have been able to do some of the most amazing things
of this generation. And I come this afternoon with nothing but praise
for this great organization, the work that it has already done and
the work that it will do in the future. And although they're outlawed
in Alabama and other states, the fact still remains that this organization
has done more to achieve civil rights for Negroes than any other
organization we can point to. (Yeah, amen) Certainly, this
is fine.
But we must not, however, remain satisfied with a court victory
over our white brothers. We must respond to every decision with
an understanding of those who have opposed us and with an appreciation
of the difficult adjustments that the court orders pose for them.
We must act in such a way as to make possible a coming together
of white people and colored people on the basis of a real harmony
of interest and understanding. We must seek an integration based
on mutual respect.
I conclude by saying that each of us must keep faith in the future.
Let us not despair. Let us realize that as we struggle for justice
and freedom, we have cosmic companionship. This is the long faith
of the Hebraic-Christian tradition: that God is not some Aristotelian
Unmoved Mover who merely contemplates upon himself. He is not merely
a self-knowing God, but an other-loving God (Yeah) forever
working through history for the establishment of His kingdom.
And those of us who call the name of Jesus Christ find something
of an event in our Christian faith that tells us this. There is
something in our faith that says to us, "Never despair; never
give up; never feel that the cause of righteousness and justice
is doomed." There is something in our Christian faith, at the
center of it, which says to us that Good Friday may occupy the throne
for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat
of the drums of Easter. (That's right) There is something
in our faith that says evil may so shape events, that Caesar will
occupy the palace and Christ the cross (That's right), but
one day that same Christ will rise up and split history into a.d.
and b.c. (Yes), so that even the life of Caesar must be dated
by his name. (Yes)
There is something in this universe (Yes, Yes) which justifies
Carlyle in saying: "No lie can live forever." (All right)
There is something in this universe which justifies William Cullen
Bryant in saying: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." (Yes.
All right) There is something in this universe (Watch yourself)
which justifies James Russell Lowell in saying:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne. (Oh yeah)
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Stands God (All right), within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own. (Yeah, yes)
Go out with that faith today. (All right, Yes) Go back to
your homes in the Southland to that faith, with that faith today.
Go back to Philadelphia, to New York, to Detroit and Chicago with
that faith today (That's right): that the universe is on
our side in the struggle. (Sure is, Yes) Stand up for justice.
(Yes)
Sometimes it gets hard, but it is always difficult to get out of
Egypt, for the Red Sea always stands before you with discouraging
dimensions. (Yes) And even after you've crossed the Red Sea,
you have to move through a wilderness with prodigious hilltops of
evil (Yes) and gigantic mountains of opposition. (Yes)
But I say to you this afternoon: Keep moving. (Go on ahead)
Let nothing slow you up. (Go on ahead) Move on with dignity
and honor and respectability. (Yes)
I realize that it will cause restless nights sometimes. It might
cause losing a job; it will cause suffering and sacrifice. (That's
right) It might even cause physical death for some. But if physical
death is the price that some must pay (Yes sir) to free their
children from a permanent life of psychological death (Yes, sir),
then nothing can be more Christian. (Yes sir) Keep going
today. (Yes sir) Keep moving amid every obstacle. (Yes
sir) Keep moving amid every mountain of opposition. (Yes,
sir, Yeah) If you will do that with dignity (Say it),
when the history books are written in the future, the historians
will have to look back and say, "There lived a great people.
(Yes sir, Yes) A people with ‘fleecy locks and black complexion
(Yes),’ but a people who injected new meaning into the veins of
civilization; a people which stood up with dignity and honor and
saved Western civilization in her darkest hour (Yes); a people
that gave new integrity and a new dimension of love to our civilization."
(Yeah, Look out) When that happens, "the morning stars will
sing together, (Yes, sir) and the sons of God will shout
for joy." (Yes sir, All right) [applause] (Yes, That’s
wonderful, All right)
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