Photo: Lee Friedlander, Mahalia Jackson (at podium); first row: Mordecai Johnson, Bishop Sherman Lawrence Greene, Reverend Thomas J. Kilgore, Jr., and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., from the series Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, 1957, printed later. Gelatin silver print. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Maria and Lee Friedlander, hon. 2004. © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Eakins Press Foundation.
Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka (1954) was an historic moment in the course of the United States. In a unanimous decision of 9-0, the Supreme Court declared state-sponsored segregation in public education was inherently unequal, and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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The ruling came as the first major step in ending apartheid in the United States, which had been operating under conditions of extreme malevolence since the Court legalized segregation in 1896. It was a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement, which had begun taking shape in its wake. Together, they united as one, their voices lifted and amplified for the first time in American history.
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On May 17, 1957, to honor the third anniversary of the decision, more than 25,000 African-American activists answered the call for a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in front of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C. Here, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous address, “Give Us the Ballot,” in which he exhort the President Eisenhower and members of Congress to ensure voting rights for African Americans.]
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Photo: Lee Friedlander, Untitled, from the series Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, 1957, printed later. Gelatin silver print. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Maria and Lee Friedlander, hon. 2004. © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Eakins Press Foundation.