The manifestos were published during the civil rights movement amidst a national process of school integration that had begun several years earlier.
Many white conservative politicians in the Southern United States embraced a policy of massive resistance to maintain school segregation.
[2] While Rabbi Jacob Rothschild of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation had also helped write the manifesto, he declined to sign it due to the Christianity-centric phrasing used, though he did support it in editorials that were also published in the Constitution and the Journal.
[1] In response, in early November, about three weeks after the attack, local clergy issued a second manifesto called, "'Out of Conviction': A Second Statement on the South's Racial Crisis".
[1] Among other things, this declaration, which was signed by 311 clergy members,[5] requested that the governor of Georgia establish a citizens' commission to help in the eventual integration of Atlanta.
[1] Following the report, the General Assembly passed a law codifying the local option policy, which was later used by Atlanta when it began to desegregate its schools in August 1961.
[1] The first manifesto was, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, "the first document of its kind: a clear, if cautious, challenge to the rhetoric of massive resistance by an established southern moral authority".
[2] Jones praised the courage of the ministers for their statements, and stated that, while the contents of the manifesto were "mild and extremely cautious", it was a groundbreaking declaration at the time of its publication.