8343 Skyline Blvd

Oakland Il, California

27 April 1960

Miss Patricia Stephens

c/o Leon County Jail

Tallahassee, Florida

Dear Miss Stephens:

This letter is simply to offer my encouragement to you and your seven associates. You have committed yourselves to a noble purpose, in a noble way, and the thoughts of many Americans are with you, though you put to shame the way in which most of us live up to our convictions. Certainly you have proved that American youth is not, as is so often said, [complacent] and undedicated. You have created hope, and have kindled a light in a dark world. And remember, always, it is better to have lighted even a single candle than to have simple cursed the darkness.

You are the future - you may not win, but you will never lose.

Sincerely,

[Signature] Hugh Montgomery