While incarcerated, he received a copy of a local newspaper that included an open letter written by eight White pastors. In that letter, titled “A Call for Unity,” the eight clergymen encouraged Black leaders to be patient in their struggle for civil rights and to work within the courts to negotiate change. Of the demonstrators and their actions, the eight clergymen wrote, “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”4
