King is frustrated not because he is behind bars , but because he is so tired of being told to be patient, and to wait for change to come. He says: "When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society ... when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) ... then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait...." His letter is a passionate indictment of American society for permitting racism to continue. But it ends in hope: "I have no despair about the future.... We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation because the goal of America is freedom ."

Demonstrators are by now being sent to jail in droves, but no one is doing anything about it . Something dramatic is needed to capture the nation's attention. Thousands of new demonstrators might do it. But where are the thousands who can march and not worry about losing their jobs? Suddenly it becomes obvious—they are in the schools! The Rev. James Bevel was with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He writes: "We started organizing the prom queens of the high schools, the basketball stars, the football stars."