Give Us the Ballot

"Give Us the Ballot" is a 1957 speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. advocating voting rights for African Americans in the United States. King delivered the speech at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom gathering at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 17.^[1]

In the key section of the speech King listed some of the changes that would result by African Americans regaining voting rights:

"Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights ...

"Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law ...

"Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will ...

"Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy ...

"Give us the ballot and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's decision of May 17, 1954."^[2]

It is one of King's major speeches.

Reference

↑ "Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957)". The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Stanford University. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
↑ "Give Us the Ballot" Speech, Martin Luther King Papers, Vol. 4, Stanford University

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Speeches, movements, and protests

Speeches	"Give Us the Ballot" (1957) "I Have a Dream" (1963) "How Long, Not Long" (1965) "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (1967) "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)

Writings	Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958) The Measure of a Man (1959) "What Is Man?" "Second Emancipation Proclamation" Strength to Love (1963) Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963) Why We Can't Wait (1964) Conscience for Change (1967) Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Movements and protests	Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957) Albany Movement (1961–1962) Birmingham campaign (1963) March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) St. Augustine movement (1963–1964) Selma Voting Rights Movement (1965) Chicago Open Housing Movement (1966) Mississippi March Against Fear (1966) Anti-Vietnam War Movement (1967) Memphis Sanitation Strike (1968) Poor People's Campaign (1968)

People

Family	Martin Luther King, Sr. (father) Alberta Williams King (mother) Christine King Farris (sister) A. D. King (brother) Coretta Scott King (wife) Yolanda King (daughter) Martin Luther King III (son) Dexter Scott King (son) Bernice King (daughter) Alveda King (niece)

Other leaders	Ralph Abernathy (colleague) Ella Baker (colleague) James Bevel (strategist / colleague) Dorothy Cotton (colleague) Jesse Jackson (protégé) Bernard Lafayette (colleague) James Lawson (colleague) John Lewis (colleague) Joseph Lowery (colleague) Benjamin Mays (mentor) Diane Nash (colleague) James Orange (colleague) Bayard Rustin (advisor) Fred Shuttlesworth (colleague) C. T. Vivian (colleague) Wyatt Walker (colleague) Hosea Williams (colleague) Andrew Young (colleague)

Assassination

James Earl Ray Lorraine Motel (now National Civil Rights Museum) Funeral MLK Records Act Riots Loyd Jowers trial

Media

Film	King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970 documentary) Our Friend, Martin (1999 animated) Boycott (2001 film) The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 (2008 documentary) Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK (2011 documentary) Selma (2014 film)

Television	King (1978 miniseries) "The First Store" (The Jeffersons episode, 1980) "Great X-Pectations" (A Different World episode, 1993) "The Promised Land" (New York Undercover episode, 1997) "Return of the King" (The Boondocks episode, 2006)

Plays	The Meeting (1987) The Mountaintop (2009) I Dream (2010) All the Way (2012)

Illustrated	Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (1957 comic book)

Music	"Abraham, Martin and John" (Dion) "March! For Martin Luther King" (John Fahey) "Martin Luther King's Dream" (Strawbs) "Happy Birthday" (Stevie Wonder) "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (U2) "MLK" (U2) "King Holiday" (King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew) "By The Time I Get To Arizona" (Public Enemy) "Shed a Little Light" (James Taylor) "Up to the Mountain" (Patti Griffin) "Never Alone Martin" (Jason Upton) "Symphony Of Brotherhood" (Miri Ben-Ari) Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King (1995 album) "A Dream" (Common featuring Will.i.am) "Glory" (Common and John Legend)

Notable
events
(timeline)

1954–1959	Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery Bus Boycott Browder v. Gayle Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom "Give Us the Ballot" Royal Ice Cream Sit-in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi Wade-Ins

1960–1963	Greensboro sit-ins Nashville sit-ins Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit-ins "Second Emancipation Proclamation" Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot 1963 Birmingham campaign Children's Crusade Letter from Birmingham Jail Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing Stand in the Schoolhouse Door John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Address March on Washington "I Have a Dream" St. Augustine movement

1964–1968	Twenty-fourth Amendment Freedom Summer workers' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches "How Long, Not Long" Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Open Housing Movement Memphis Sanitation Strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968

Jim Crow laws
Plessy v. Ferguson
- Separate but equal
Buchanan v. Warley
Hocutt v. Wilson
Sweatt v. Painter
Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
Katzenbach v. McClung
Loving v. Virginia
Fifth Circuit Four
Massive resistance
March on Washington Movement
African-American churches attacked
Journey of Reconciliation
Freedom Songs
- "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around"
- "I Love Everybody"
- "Kumbaya"
- "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
- "Oh, Freedom"
- "This Little Light of Mine"
- "We Shall Not Be Moved"
- "We Shall Overcome"
Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
- "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
Watts riots
Voter Education Project
1960s counterculture
In popular culture
Museums
- King Memorial

Activist
groups

Activists

Influences

Noted
historians

Suffrage

Basic topics	Women's suffrage Universal suffrage Voting age Youth suffrage Right of foreigners to vote Demeny voting Suffragette Compulsory voting Disfranchisement

By country	Australia 1902 Commonwealth Franchise Act aboriginal women Japan Kuwait New Zealand Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom women Wales Reform Act 1832 Representation of the People Act 1918 1928 Equal Franchise Act United States women timeline foreigners District of Columbia Puerto Rico 15th Amendment 19th Amendment 26th Amendment 1965 Voting Rights Act

Events	Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments 1907 Mud March Suffrage Hikes 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession Silent Sentinels Night of Terror "Give Us the Ballot" Selma to Montgomery marches First Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Second Conference Third Conference Fourth Conference Fifth Conference Sixth Conference Seventh Conference Eighth Conference

Related	List of suffragists and suffragettes Timeline of women's suffrage Timeline of women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries Women's suffrage organizations and publications Age of candidacy Youth vote Women's rights activists 1920 U.S. presidential election Leser v. Garnett Shoulder to Shoulder (1974 series) Not for Ourselves Alone (1999 documentary) Iron Jawed Angels (2004 film) Selma (2014 film) Suffragette (2015 film) National Voting Rights Museum

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Give Us the Ballot

See also

Reference