Maya Clement
Professor Clemens
Making of America
21 March 2023
Warriors Don’t Cry Response Melba Patillo Beal’s experiences as a child and in high school were influenced by various events that affected how she answered to the integration crisis at Little Rock Central High and how she lived her life going forth. Melba lives with her grandmother, India, her mother Loiws, her father Howell, and her little brother Conrad. She was raised in a household that valued the importance of education, and her family taught her to value herself and believe that she is capable of anything with perseverance and hard effort. Melba Beals, however, was regularly exposed to prejudice and segregation, which made her aware of the injustices that existed in the world.
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There she excelled, but she wanted a greater opportunity for a better education, so she applied to Central High School because of the decision of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Without her family knowing that she applied, she was chosen to be one of the nine Black students who would attend and integrate Little Rock Central High School. On their first day at Central High School, Beals and the other eight Black students were waited on by crowds of white people who wanted to keep them out of the school. They were greeted with violent acts and hateful language. Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, had sent soldiers from the National Guard to disrupt the integration, temporarily prevented the students from entering the school, and did not protect them. Melba did not feel safe with the troops and was constantly harassed and attacked by students during school. She was spat on, beaten, called repulsive insults. Teachers and the school administration, did nothing except enabled this behavior to persist, leaving Melba on her own to defend herself. Melba desperately wants to return back to her life before the integration started. She is unable to leave the house because her family is afraid she may be attacked. She has been constantly swarmed with news reporters who question about her life since the integration. Wanting to resume to her normal life desperately, Melba is miserable and upset. After receiving death threats from white people who claim to know her address and are threatening to kill her and her family, she is afraid even to answer the