The Lions Of Little Rock Quotes
"Because all the words in the world won’t do much good if they’re just rattling around in your head."
"In math, you always get the same answer, no matter how you do the problem. But with words, blue can be a thousand different shades! Two is always two. I like that."
"People sometimes think I’m stupid because I’m so quiet. But I’m not stupid, I’m scared."
"It’s important to face your fears. It makes you a better person."
"I much prefer numbers to words. In math, you always get the same answer, no matter how you do the problem."
"Sometimes, at night, when I hear the lions roaring and they’re really going at it, just growling and yowling, and roaring like a jet engine, sometimes I wish I could be like them, that I could just yell out whatever I was thinking or feeling and not care one whit who heard."
"You have to say things too. Because all the words in the world won’t do much good if they’re just rattling around in your head."
"But don’t you think they’d rather be chasing a zebra across the savanna?"
"At night. I like to listen to the lions roar."
"They’ll let their kids go without an education, but Little Rock won’t stand for no football?"
"You’d think it’d be scary, but I’ve heard them for so long, it actually makes me feel safe."
"A secret so big, your whole life depends on it."
"The farther away you stay from them, the better."
"We have to do what’s best for her education and—"
"I’d seen birds like that before, stunned, but if you left them alone long enough, they’d shake it off and be as good as new."
"Things might seem awful bad right now, with your new friend gone and your sister at Granny’s and Mother so angry with me, but we’ll get through this. You’ll see."
"The silence was horrible, and I found myself wishing for the yelling."
"Parents were not supposed to cry. They weren’t supposed to fight, either."
"For the first time I realized, not only were there no women among those scientists on TV, there weren’t any Negroes either."
"If you’d asked me last summer if I wanted a Negro for a friend, I’d have said no thank you. But this wasn’t some random hypothetical Negro—this was Liz."
"The world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth, too small for anything but brotherhood."
"I wasn’t much of a letter writer, but I’d have to send her a note in return."
"But even if you do suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled."
"I guess I did fool Betty Jean, though, because she went over and cut me a piece of apple pie. 'Lucky for you,' she said, 'I sometimes have a very bad memory.'"
"Remember, the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools stands neither for segregation nor integration, but for education."
"It's no problem. I'll just find someone else to do the work for me."
"Doing the right thing was harder than I'd expected it to be. And more confusing too."
"I know it's frustrating, but sometimes change is slow."
"I always knew you were a pretty girl, Marlee, but you're even cuter when you're angry."
"All I'm saying is that it still seems odd to me that we haven't invited any colored women to join the WEC."
"The only thing I could imagine that was worse than being in junior high was having Mother come with me to junior high."
"Ever since I was a little girl, I've been proud to live in Little Rock. Proud to be from the South. But this... it's been going on too long."
"I wasn't sure if I was proud of myself for finally standing up to him, or embarrassed it had taken me so long to do so."
"Pressing the pencil down so hard, it broke. Twice."
"If you ask me to do your homework again, I’ll tell Mr. Harding."
"The view was beautiful... The late-afternoon sun turned all the new light green leaves to gold, like King Midas had been walking through the forest."
"The more you skate, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you skate."
"I imagined a magic square to calm down, all the rows and columns and diagonals adding up to fifteen."
"Saying what you think is as important as thinking it! Speak out for public schools!"
"Maybe I had to talk to her first, and then, after I did, maybe it would start to feel natural."
"We thought we were safe at the rock crusher because it was so isolated, but clearly we were wrong."
"I don’t care what McKinley just cut me off and said, there was no time for discussion."
"If I concentrated and held on real tight, I could almost do it without counting. Almost."
"I realized it wouldn’t be that hard if he really wanted to find out."
"But it’s time. Time to take a stand. The risks—to our students, to our schools, to our town’s reputation—are too great if we stand aside and say nothing."
"Believed they could make things better, even though they were still just kids."
"I’d thought Little Jimmy had been on the verge of asking me to the movies (not that I could go, since I was grounded), but he hadn’t said a word about it."
"But even with a frown on his face, he still looked handsome, and it irked me."
"If we can get three more moderate school board members elected, they can join forces with the three who walked out. Then instead of everything being deadlocked, we can move forward on reopening the schools."
"In any case, this sounded like the best chance we’d had in ages."
"I think I might know a couple of people who might be willing to sign a petition like that. If you don’t mind accepting help from some colored folks, that is."
"We should do this again soon. Spend time together, I mean. Maybe go to the zoo?"
"It’s ridiculous. Stealing keys, climbing into a trunk. Who can believe a story like that?"
"The truth is, the world is much more like an algebraic equation. With variables and changes, complicated and messy."
"I’m not always a cup of warm milk with a dash of cinnamon. And Little Jimmy is more than just apple juice!"
"When you were stuck, you should factor the equation."
"If I didn’t know what to do, I should factor the equation."
"Taking the dynamite from Red was reckless and impulsive. But it was awfully brave too."
"A friend is someone who helps you change for the better. And whether you see them once a day or once a year, if it’s a true friend, it doesn’t matter."
"It makes my skin crawl. How do you stand it? You sleep better at night."
"I thought of how scared she must have been this past year, and suddenly I no longer blamed her for keeping us apart."
"Public schools are not just about reading and writing, math and test scores, but also about bringing different types of people together."