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Racial Segregation In Melba Pattillo Beals 'Warriors Don' T Cry

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In the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals details her and the rest of the Little Rock Nines’ struggles against segregationists in their attempt to integrate Central High School. They fought through constant harassment and death threats on their journey to become the first black students to successfully complete a school year at a previously all-white school. The book highlights the effects of racial segregation while emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resilience when facing adversity. One of the major themes of the book is the effects of racial discrimination and segregation. Everything from bathrooms to water fountains were separate and black people were treated as second-class citizens. This dynamic kept white people in charge and met any form of resistance with protests and violence. The most prominent example of this in the book is when a large mob crowded around central high school to …show more content…

The second that they stepped into the school, they were peppered with racial slurs and physical abuse. Beals continuously wrote in her diary about how she did not know if she could make it and even considered suicide at one point. As the school year progressed, their protection lessened and the attacks on them began to increase. The adults in the school ignored their reports and their bodyguards often stood by watching them get attacked. However, she and the others were able to make it through with encouragement from the people around them and focusing on the end goal. They matured quickly during this time, with Beals writing, “I think only the warrior exists in me now. Melba went away to hide”(163). She heavily relied on her commitment to Christianity, writing letters to God and always trying to do the right thing. Beals and her peer’s perseverance ultimately spearheaded the integration process in the South and gained recognition

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Will Haughey Warriors Don’t Cry The book Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals focuses on the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas following the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954. In 1957, she and eight other teenagers were selected to attend Central High School as an integration effort. These nine were known as the Little Rock Nine. What ensued in the 1957-1958 school year was a pitched battle over integration, involving the deployment of federal troops and lynch mobs.

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While Beals marched into the Central High School, she had to face the white mob of people who were being racist around her. She also had to take a great risk while entering

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Melba Pattilo Beals is an African American woman, who was born on December 7, 1941. Warriors Don’t Cry is was memoir of Beals’ encounter in the Civil Right Era. With memorable encounters with the Little Rock 9, who were a group of 9 African American students who were enrolled to Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. Central High was an all-white school before the integration. Leading up to the integration, Beals’ childhood was extremely painful encounters, which no child should experience in their childhood.

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It’s been almost 60 years since our nation was in an uproar due to the varied opinions about the Civil Rights Movement. In the novel Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, nine African American high school students transfer to an all white high school in an attempt to desegregate. We continue to tell these stories decades after the Civil Rights Movement happened. It’s important for us to remember these events in history. We need to keep the memory and the lessons from the civil rights movement alive.

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The book, Warriors Don’t Cry by Patillo Beals, is a memoir describing what happened in 1957 when Little Rock Central High School Integrated. It showed Melba Patillo, an african american student, going through the integration. Melba responded bravely and showed strength throughout her journey of the integration. Melba tried not to show too many of her emotions, however it was difficult for her to keep strong because others showed their hatred towards her and the idea of integration.

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332 Words | 2 Pages

Facing the segregationists and the horrors of the South, Melba Pattillo was a strong warrior on the battlefield of racism for all people of color across the world. Beginning with the integration into Central High School, the brave 9 children hit waves upon waves of mobs and white people giving their all to get rid of them. Melba has gone through hell and back facing attacks of anything from sticks of dynamite to acid being thrown in her eyes. Her dignity and courage gave her the strength to refuse to back down and make a remarkable story.

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689 Words | 3 Pages

"Warriors Don’t Cry" is a memoir written by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of black students who play a pivotal role in desegregating public schools in the United States. Melba recounts her story as a black teenager attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. She begins by describing her early life, mentioning her birth on Pearl Harbor Day and her family. Growing up, Melba is well aware of the pervasive racial inequality that affects her daily life. On May 17, 1954, the US Supreme Court strikes down school segregation.

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Warriors Don’t Cry is a fantastic book that gives insight on what truly happened in Little Rock, Arkansas during the middle of segregation. The book is written by one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals and is set in the 1950s. The memoir follows Melba through her life as an African American in the segregated south. Melba is a young girl who does not realize that she is different throughout her early childhood until she learns the hard way that African American people get treated differently than the white people. Melba’s life is relatively normal until she hears about the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954.

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This quote was said by the majority of Central High School white students. It shows one of the many instances when Melba has to endure the mental abuse of her peers. When the white students would say degrading things to her, she would just look the other way and keep to herself. She also was strong because she had to keep to herself most of the time because if she made a big deal out of it, it might happen more often.

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The Little Rock Nine impacted civil right in their own time as well as today by leaving their schools, their friends, and their security behind to make history and a great impact. This case became known all over the world as it turned into an open resistance of justice and law against personal prejudices and absurd racial bigotry: “The Little Rock Nine are a group of African-American students who were prevented from attending Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas during 1957. They step into all-white school and got beat, but they also made a statement that they were not backing down until they and everybody else got what they deserve. They continue to fight for one thing which was that everybody has equal educational opportunity.

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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.

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Imagine getting up everyday before high school and preparing for war. For Melba Pattillo Beals this fear was a scary reality. In the beginning of “Warriors Don 't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock 's Central High” by Melba Pattillo Beals, she begins talking about what it’s like to come back to the haunted racist halls of Little Rock Central High School. This was a time when civil rights was a major issue and the color separation between white and black was about to be broken. Melba and nine other students entered Central High School becoming the first African American students to go to an all white school.

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491 Words | 2 Pages

We ain't gonna integrate.” Sadly, the children followed the adults so in high school the African Americans were treated terribly. One of the African Americans names was Melba Pattillo; There were eight other children and together they’re known as The Little Rock Nine; Nine African American students fighting for their education. Along the way they had difficulties with other white students. Some of the white students at the school harassed the Little Rock Nine, while others even assaulted them or threw objects at them.

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669 Words | 3 Pages

In the book Warriors Don 't Cry, Melba and her friends integrate into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Melba and her friends experiences troubles as she tries to survive integration. Beals reveals a lot of things that would gives hint to things that we see ahead. The book mainly focuses on the south, light has been shed on events in the north around the same time when the Little Rock Nine (Bars) integrated. This essay will make inferences that show how people in the southern schools will continue to be ruthless and slow acceptance for the nine and for the north schools how whites will except African-Americans more.

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194 Words | 1 Pages

Melba Beals was one of the first nine black students to attend a white school. White people, angry segregationist mobs, and even the Arkansas governor tried to keep her and the other students from going to a white school. They expressed their resentment by being very rude and trying to block them from going in. But she didn’t yell back or get angry because she knew that it wouldn’t help her case of going to school. Beals says, “Some of the white people looked totally horrified, while others raised their fists to us.”

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