Useful Links
The Power of One: Roy Wilkins and the Civil Rights Movement
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2014/05/the-power-of-one-roy-wilkins-and-the-civil-rights-movement/
Biography
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/wilkins-roy-1901-1981/
Primary Sources
Standing Fast: The Autobiography Of Roy Wilkins
https://www.amazon.com/Standing-Fast-Autobiography-Roy-Wilkins/dp/0306805669
Speech by Roy Wilkins - Live in Washington, D.C. (From The Great March On Washington)- full speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98BAu5w8AM
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom
Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington (excerpt of the speech)Roy Wilkins (1901–1981), executive secretary of the NAACP, spoke about pending civil rights legislation at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/multimedia/roy-wilkins.html
(1957) Roy Wilkins, “The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back”
In 1957 Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was next to Rev. Martin Luther King, the most recognized civil rights leader in the nation. In October of that year he addressed the Commonwealth Club of California five weeks after mobs in Little Rock, Arkansas, attempted to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School. The defiant governor, Orval Faubus, called on Arkansas National Guard troops to keep the students out, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to protect them. The school had been desegregated by a court order resulting from a 1954 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education. Wilkins spoke on the crisis facing not only black Americans, but the future of the United States during the Cold War.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1957-roy-wilkins-clock-will-not-be-turned-back/
Speech, Roy Wilkins, 27 February 1958
On 17 May 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring racially segregated schools to be inherently unequal. A year later, in a decision known as Brown II, that same court allowed states and localities a good deal of flexibility in implementing the decision, mandating desegregation "with all deliberate speed."
Initially Virginia's reaction to Brown was restrained. The day after the 1954 decree was issued, Governor Thomas B. Stanley urged calm, and indicated he would consult state and local officials and "leaders of both races" to determine how Brown would be implemented. Quickly, however, resistance solidified. Opposition to the decision was centered in southern Virginia and was led by state senator Garland Gray of Sussex County. Businessmen in Farmville established the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties to fight school desegregation, and local chapters sprang up throughout the state. These organizations were similar to the White Citizens' Councils that were formed in the Deep South. According to one recent scholar of massive resistance, "In their publications and on the stump, the Defenders denounced integration, emphasizing instances of racial tensions in northern schools, the high crime rate among blacks, and alleged communist influence in the civil rights movement." Roy Wilkins responds to these specific charges on pages seven through nine of his speech.
https://virginiahistory.org/speech-roy-wilkins-27-february-1958
https://www.amazon.com/Standing-Fast-Autobiography-Roy-Wilkins/dp/0306805669
Speech by Roy Wilkins - Live in Washington, D.C. (From The Great March On Washington)- full speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98BAu5w8AM
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom
Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington (excerpt of the speech)Roy Wilkins (1901–1981), executive secretary of the NAACP, spoke about pending civil rights legislation at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/multimedia/roy-wilkins.html
(1957) Roy Wilkins, “The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back”
In 1957 Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was next to Rev. Martin Luther King, the most recognized civil rights leader in the nation. In October of that year he addressed the Commonwealth Club of California five weeks after mobs in Little Rock, Arkansas, attempted to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School. The defiant governor, Orval Faubus, called on Arkansas National Guard troops to keep the students out, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to protect them. The school had been desegregated by a court order resulting from a 1954 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education. Wilkins spoke on the crisis facing not only black Americans, but the future of the United States during the Cold War.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1957-roy-wilkins-clock-will-not-be-turned-back/
Speech, Roy Wilkins, 27 February 1958
On 17 May 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring racially segregated schools to be inherently unequal. A year later, in a decision known as Brown II, that same court allowed states and localities a good deal of flexibility in implementing the decision, mandating desegregation "with all deliberate speed."
Initially Virginia's reaction to Brown was restrained. The day after the 1954 decree was issued, Governor Thomas B. Stanley urged calm, and indicated he would consult state and local officials and "leaders of both races" to determine how Brown would be implemented. Quickly, however, resistance solidified. Opposition to the decision was centered in southern Virginia and was led by state senator Garland Gray of Sussex County. Businessmen in Farmville established the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties to fight school desegregation, and local chapters sprang up throughout the state. These organizations were similar to the White Citizens' Councils that were formed in the Deep South. According to one recent scholar of massive resistance, "In their publications and on the stump, the Defenders denounced integration, emphasizing instances of racial tensions in northern schools, the high crime rate among blacks, and alleged communist influence in the civil rights movement." Roy Wilkins responds to these specific charges on pages seven through nine of his speech.
https://virginiahistory.org/speech-roy-wilkins-27-february-1958