Roy Wilkins: “The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back”

Essential Quotes

“[Little Rock] dealt a stab in the back to American prestige as the leader of the free world and presented our totalitarian enemies with made-to-order propaganda.”

“The Negro citizens of our common country, a country they have sweated to build and died to defend, are determined that the verdict at Appomattox will not be renounced, that the clock will not be turned back, that they shall enjoy what is justly theirs.”

“Can we afford to deny to any boy or girl the maximum of education, that education which may mean the difference between democratic life and totalitarian death?”

“To deny our ability to achieve a just solution within the framework of our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights is to deny the genius of Americans.”