Essay On Warriors Don T Cry

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattilo Beals is a memoir about Beals experiences and her journey while integrating Little Rocks Central High School. She wanted to share her story about what it was like to grow up in the middle of the civil rights movement and what it was like to be one of the nine students who were the first African Americans to integrate a public all white school. During and after reading the book a few thoughts went through my head. First, was my reaction at the horrific things that were done to Melba by integrationist in Central High. For example, while in the bathroom stall a group of girls locked her in and began dumping paper that was light on fire onto her. Before reading this book I was not truly aware of the extent

Board of Education signified the first time that the Supreme Court was on the African American side. This court case was a direct challenge to Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that separate but equal facilities were equal. The book Warriors Don’t Cry is set directly during this period. In 1957, Governor Orval Faubus blocked the integration of nine students from Little Rocks Central High. President Eisenhower eventually became involved for a few reasons; one was because Governor Faubus was making an obvious resistance to federal authority. Another was that he wanted to restore federal supremacy and put an end to the propaganda that the Soviet Union was using during the Cold War. The governor still continued to fight integration by closing all of the Little Rock’s schools but the Supreme Court ruled that the closing of those schools was unconstitutional and that they needed to be reopened. All the while other parts of the civil rights movement were underway including the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956 and sit-ins plus marches for freedom. This memoir gives readers a first hand account of what life was like during this movement and all the barriers Melba and others had to