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My first published statement came directly from the movement. With a Spelman College student, I wrote a document called "An Appeal For Human Rights." With help from noted white author Lillian Smith, it was published as a full-page ad in the morning Atlanta Constitution, the afternoon Atlanta Journal, and Atlanta's black daily, the Atlanta Daily World.

In it, we listed the grievances black Atlanta had against the segregation system, and we announced "we had joined our hearts, minds^s and bodies in the cause of gaining those rights which are inherently ours as members of the human race and as citizens of these United States."

The "Appeal" closed with this plea - and a warning^:

"We, therefore, call upon all people in authority - State County and City officials; all leaders in civic life - ministers, teachers and business men; and all people of good will to assert themselves and abolish these injustices. We must say in all candor that we plan to use every legal and nonviolent means at our disposal to secure full citizenship rights as members of this great democracy of ours."

It caused a sensation.

The Governor responded by saying^, "This statement was not written by students; it was not written in Georgia. It sounds as though it was written in Moscow or Peking."

This was early instruction for me in the power of the written word - the power of my words, and it encouraged me to continue to speak truth to power from then until now.

I dropped out of school to work in the movement - and to work on the staff of a small black weekly newspaper that grew out of the

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