Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was not mincing words. "The Negro citizen," he said, "does not subscribe to violence as a method of securing his rights. But he has come to the point where he is not afraid of violence. He no longer shrinks back. He will assert himself, and if violence comes, so be it." Since Wilkins' sympathies are well known, his speech was not entirely surprising. Much more remarkable was the burst of applause he got from his audience—composed of 127 white police officers, most of them from the segregated...
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