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{{Short description|1963 open letter and event in the US Civil Rights movement}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}

"'''A Call for Unity'''" was an [[open letter]] published in ''The Birmingham ''[Alabama]'' News'', on April 12, 1963, by eight local white clergymen in response to [[American civil rights movement|civil rights]] [[Birmingham campaign|demonstrations]] taking place in the area at the time. In the letter, they took issue with events "directed and led in part by outsiders," and they urged activists to engage in local negotiations and to use the courts if rights were being denied, rather than to protest.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alabama Clergymen's Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |url=https://moodle.tiu.edu/pluginfile.php/57183/mod_resource/content/1/StatementAndResponseKingBirmingham1.pdf |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229055408/https://moodle.tiu.edu/pluginfile.php/57183/mod_resource/content/1/StatementAndResponseKingBirmingham1.pdf |archive-date=December 29, 2018 }}</ref>

The term "outsider" was a thinly-veiled reference to [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who replied four days later, with his famous "[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]." He argued that [[direct action]] was necessary to protest unjust laws.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tribpub.com/gdpr/baltimoresun.com/|title=Baltimore Sun|website=www.tribpub.com|access-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref>

The authors of "A Call for Unity" had written "An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense" in January 1963.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bass |first=S. Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RGqzXX2I2wC&pg=PA233|title=Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" |year=2001 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-2800-8}}</ref>

==Signatories==
* [[Charles Carpenter (bishop)|C. C. J. Carpenter]], D.D., LL.D., Bishop, [[Episcopal Diocese of Alabama]]
* [[Joseph Aloysius Durick]], D.D., Auxiliary Bishop, [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile|Catholic Diocese of Mobile]], Birmingham
* [[Milton Grafman|Milton L. Grafman]], Rabbi of [[Temple Emanu-El (Birmingham, Alabama)|Temple Emanu-El]], Birmingham, Alabama
* [[Paul Hardin, Jr.|Paul Hardin]], Bishop of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the [[Methodist Church (USA)|Methodist Church]]
* [[Nolan Bailey Harmon]], Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church
* [[George M. Murray (bishop)|George M. Murray]], D.D., LL.D., Bishop Coadjutor, Episcopal Diocese of Alabama
* [[Edward V. Ramage]], Moderator, Synod of the Alabama [[Presbyterian Church in the United States]]
* [[Earl Stallings]], Pastor, First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bass, S. Jonathan (2001). ''Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"''. Baton Rouge: LSU Press. {{ISBN|0-8071-2655-1}}.

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=https://moodle.tiu.edu/pluginfile.php/57183/mod_resource/content/1/StatementAndResponseKingBirmingham1.pdf |title="A Call for Unity", also known as "Statement by Alabama Clergymen" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229055408/https://moodle.tiu.edu/pluginfile.php/57183/mod_resource/content/1/StatementAndResponseKingBirmingham1.pdf |archive-date=29 December 2018 |url-status=dead }}
* [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail "Letter from Birmingham Jail"] as PDF and audio version

{{DEFAULTSORT:Call for Unity, A}}
[[Category:History of Alabama]]
[[Category:United States documents]]
[[Category:1963 documents]]
[[Category:Open letters]]
[[Category:1963 in Alabama]]

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A Call for Unity - Revision history

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