March 22, 1960 

Dear Fellow Students, 

Your courageous participation in various protest actions aimed at securing social justice has aroused the conscience of Yale Divinity School. We are repentant because of our failure to take a more active part in the struggle against discrimination. Your determination has awakened ours, and we are at last taking action, too. 

First of all, we are writing you this letter, in order that you shall be aware of our solidarity with you. We are in wholehearted and unequivocal agreement with the ends you are seeking, not only the short-term end of the right to eat in department stores that depend upon your patronage in every other respect, but also the long-term end of full first-class citizenship for all Americans. 

Our student body voted today to give expression to our convictions in the following ways. Tomorrow morning, after a worship service of penitence and dedication, we shall have a silent march through the city of New Haven, carrying placards and distributing handbills that explain why we are engaging in this symbolic action. In the afternoon, we shall call upon landlords of the city in an attempt to find more doors that are open to all persons, regardless of race, color, or national origin. We hope to awaken further the conscience of our own community, and we hope to be able to destroy some of the groundless fears and prejudices that also exist here in the minds of our citizens. Finally, we are going to try to deepen our own commitment to the struggle for human rights, and our knowledge of how that struggle may be most wisely carried out, by encouraging participation in the Urban League, CORE, and the NAACP. 

We want you to know that we stand behind you and with you in your efforts there, although we probably have only a very dim realization of the tremendous pressures and grave costs to which you are being subjected. We are ready to be of aid in any way that we can, and we urge you to let us know immediately if there is something concrete which we can do to help. Our hearts are with you. 

Henry Clark for YDS Social Action Committee