Thousands of civil rights advocates, from 30 states, gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, on May 17, 1957.
The three-hour demonstration observed the third anniversary of the Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools. The attendees also wanted more, and faster, action on civil rights issues.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the crowd and described that landmark Supreme Court decision as "a joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation."
But it was clear back then that segregation in schools would not go away quickly. "The Supreme Court's decision is not self-enforcing," said an article in The Times Magazine a few weeks after the pilgrimage, "and instead of spelling the end of an era of civil-rights litigation, it has marked the beginning of a new and even more bitter phase."
Though this photograph seemed to capture the unsatisfied mood of the time, it did not appear with The Times article on the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in 1957.
