The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" became a defining written work of the Civil Rights Era, offering an eloquent justification of the movement and its tactics that inspired moderates to join the struggle for racial equality. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, King, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and others marched near Kelly Ingram Park in violation of a court order against demonstrations opposing segregation, and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Conner arrested them and took them to the Birmingham City Jail. After eight white ministers urged blacks to be patient and rely on the courts rather than direct action, King, confined in a small cell, wrote arguments and quotations from philosophers, patriots, and scripture, insisting that confrontation was necessary to pressure whites to negotiate for social justice and declaring, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." His lawyers carried his notes to campaign coordinator Wyatt Walker, who organized and edited them into about 7,000 words; the letter was dated April 16 and published in May 1963.