In this WSB newsfilm clip from a press conference about the continuation of the Freedom Ride held in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 23, 1961, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. discusses the imperative to continue the struggle. The clip begins with Dr. King, Reverend Abernathy, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) president John Lewis sitting down at a table; Lewis has a bandage on his head from injuries he received on May 21 when he and a group of students from Nashville were beaten after arriving in Montgomery. Wyatt Walker, SCLC executive secretary stands in the background. A group of cameramen and reporters line up in front of the table; the group of reporters includes an African American man as well as a white woman. King, apparently responding to a reporter's question, declares that encouraging African Americans to wait passively for their citizenship rights is impractical and immoral and asserts that "the time is always right to do right." He criticizes those who would say civil rights demonstrations and violent white resistance hurts the image of the United States in the international community, replying that "the thing that is hurting us most is the continued existence of segregation and discrimination." The clip ends with King's emphasizing that the struggle for civil rights "is a struggle to save the soul of America." The Freedom Rides, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) during the summer of 1961, tested federal laws outlawing segregation in travel between states. Two groups of volunteers trained in nonviolence planned to travel from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, leaving May 4. On May 10 both buses were ambushed by violent mobs in Anniston, Alabama, and one bus was ambushed again in Birmingham, injuring Freedom Riders, newsmen, and bystanders. Student civil rights workers from Nashville, Tennessee, went to Montgomery, Alabama to continue the freedom ride and were also beaten. Federal officials sent National Guard troops to Montgomery to restore order and protect the Freedom Riders in their journey. The group was protected until their arrival in Jackson, Mississippi, where they were beaten, arrested, and sent to Parchman Penitentiary; others who later arrived in Jackson to continue the ride were also arrested. Although the Freedom Riders never made it to New Orleans, the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ruled segregation in travel between states illegal as well as in facilities serving those travelers; the ruling went into effect November 1, 1961.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 1 min.): black-and-white, sound ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of a press conference with comments by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. about the Freedom Ride, Montgomery, Alabama, 1961 May 23, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0776, 58:02/59:16, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.