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Warriors Don't Cry

Name: Warriors Don't Cry
Author: Melba Pattillo Beals
ISBN: 9781416948827

by Melba Pattillo Beals

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Overview

An innocent teenager.

An unexpected hero.

In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School.

Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down.

This is her remarkable story.

Melba Patillo Beals, who as a teenager in 1957 became a key player in a critical civil rights struggle, has abridged for young readers her affecting adult title Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High School.

Synopsis

In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School.

This is her remarkable story.

Publishers Weekly

The author was one of nine black teenagers who in 1957 integrated their high school despite violent retaliation. (Aug.)

About the Author, Melba Pattillo Beals

Melba Pattillo Beals is a journalist and member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who were the first to integrate Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The author was one of nine black teenagers who in 1957 integrated their high school despite violent retaliation. (Aug.)

Children's Literature - Julie Hendrix

Melba Patillo Beals was one of the nine students who was allowed to attend an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 as a result of Brown vs. Board of Education. This book documents her first year at the school. This integration was covered by national news, but Melba's first-hand account of her experiences gives a human touch to this highly-political situation. Many people were against this integration and physically gaining entry to the school was Melba's first hurdle. The NAACP escorted her and the other students, but the angry crowds would not allow them to enter the school. Arkansas' governor dispatched the National Guard to keep the black children out of the white school. The U.S. courts intervened, and Melba was admitted into the school. Once inside, Melba faced continuous threats of violence, acts of violence, and racial slurs under the guidance of teachers and school administrators. Because Melba's safety was jeopardized, a special military unit, the 101st Airborne Division, was sent into school. Melba was still abused even with soldiers providing personal protection. Melba uses journal entries and newspaper headlines to deliver her memoir. Segregation, peer pressure, and the division of the country over the issue of integration really come alive through her words. Melba's determination to do the right thing in spite of the tremendous amount of cruelty she faced is stunning. There is a delicate scene in which Melba is nearly raped in retribution for the court's ruling. Reviewer: Julie Hendrix

Library Journal

Beals, one of the "Little Rock Nine'' and a former NBC reporter, writes movingly of desegregating Little Rock's Central High School in 1957-58. Using diaries and contemporary media coverage, she re-creates a time of fear and tenaciously held hopes. The horrors the nine black students faced are told in a teenager's voice, simply and sadly. Robbed of normal adolescence, Beals grew up fast. Her gratitude to the 101st Airborne for their protection stands in stark contrast to her bewilderment over the behavior of Governor Faubus and school officials, who refused to enforce even rudimentary discipline to prevent the daily torture. Beals credits family and friends, along with Daisy Bates, the late Thurgood Marshall, and the press, for their support. Though her use of "re-created'' conversations does not always work, this remains a highly readable tale of courage in the face of persecution that deserves to be read, especially by young people. School libraries should consider, and all libraries with strong black history collections will want to purchase. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/94.]-Donna L. Cole, Leeds P.L., Ala.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Beals, one of the nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, AR, in 1957, tells an incredible story of faith, family love, friendships, and strong personal commitment. Drawing from the diaries she kept, the author easily puts readers in her saddle oxfords as she struggles against those people in both the white and black communities who would have segregation continue. Her prose does not play on the sympathy of readers; it simply tells it like it happened. She shares the physical, mental, and emotional torture and abuse she suffered at the hands of teenagers and adults. She also shares the support, the encouragement, and the help she received from both whites and blacks. While the book's length may discourage younger readers, those who begin it will find the reading easy and fast. This abridgement of the author's 1994 adult title of the same name is fascinating as well as enlightening and honest.-Valerie Childress, J.W. Holloway Middle School, Whitehouse, TX