On this day in 1961

MAY 23, 1961

From front to back, John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy and James Farmer held a 1961 press conference to announce that the Freedom Rides would continue. Credit: AP

Days after a violent attack by a white mob, civil rights leaders James Farmer, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. announced at a news conference in Montgomery, Alabama, that the Freedom Rides would continue. Lewis was wearing bandages from the beating he received in Montgomery.