Summary Of Warriors Don T Cry

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. Once segregation in school was ruled to be unconstitutional, Melba’s life changed forever; and when she was fourteen

Since there was no way to get the Little Rock Nine out without all getting attacked, someone suggested to give the mob a kid so that they could distract them “long enough to get the others out” (115). This is extremely wrong and definitely not the way to go about this situation. The people are adults and they should know that the life of a child is not worth being given up so that they can all get out safely. Whoever is in charge should have talked it through with the policemen about what they would do if this were to happen. It is really a great thing that the Assistant Chief of the Little Rock Police Department, Gene Smith, was there to tell the people who wanted to give up a child that they were wrong. Gene Smith agreed that it was “time for [them] to leave for today” and he took them out safely without being injured by the

Due to the decades of tradition and practice of integration, they did not believe that it should happen. The parents of the children would protest in front of Central High chanting “Two, four, six, eight. We ain't gonna integrate”(147). The parents believed that since they were white they had the upper hand when it came to civil rights. The issue of integration had been a problem in Arkansas for years but it had finally become real when Judge Davies ruled that it was okay for the Little Rock Nine to attend Central High. While the kids were in school they stood outside and refused to leave until the African American students were not allowed back in with their children. A group of angry white mothers were so serious about anti-integration that during Melba’s gym class they “[jumped] over the rear fence as they shouted obscenities” (112) towards Melba. The attitudes of the parents of Little Rock is what probably gave way to the way that their children acted towards the Little Rock Nine. The parents also felt like they were doing a good deed when insulting the children but really they were just fueling them more to want to go integrate Central High