and taken to jail. The four men did not take their arrest seriously and joked with each other on the way to jail. All four men confessed in writing to having abducted Owens at gunpoint and raping her. Reactions to the rape After FAMU students learned of the attack on Owens, a small group planned an armed march to city hall. This armed march would symbolize their protection of black womanhood with guns as the whites protected white womanhood. Other student leaders argued against an armed march and instead planned a “Unity” demonstration. Fifteen hundred students entered the Lee Auditorium to demand justice for Owens, and the student leaders announced that they would petition the governor for a "speedy and impartial trial". The following day, over a thousand students gathered with signs and prayers that were broadcast over news media. Many of these students connected the events to other issues in the struggle for black freedom, such as the desegregation issues in Little Rock, Arkansas. These students held up posters with scenes from Little Rock that read, "My God How Much More of This Can We Take". Even the BBC broadcast segments of the FAMU student demonstrations. As a result of prominent media coverage, student protests, and a threat to boycott classes, Judge W. May Walker called together a grand jury into special session on May 6, 1959. The trial More than 200 black spectators entered the courtroom that day to watch the trial. A nurse accompanied Owens because she was still undergoing treatment for injuries as well as depression. All four men pled not guilty, to the shock of the spectators in the courtroom. The innocence pleas made a jury trial mandatory. This case was significant because, for the first time in Florida, a judge sent white defendants charged with raping a black woman to jail to await their trial. Previously, Florida had never executed a white man for raping a black woman, and many thought that this could be the trial to change that. Attitudes about the trial varied among black leaders. Ella Baker, the director the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, felt that the evidence in the case was so strong that the jury could not fail to convict. Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, said that the four rapists destroyed the "virginity of our daughters". Furthermore, he explained that "Appeals for justice will avail us