Melba Patillo Beals' "Warriors Don't Cry"

Paper Summary:

May 17, 1994, marks the fortieth anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which was argued and won by Thurgood Marshall, whose passion and presence emboldened the Little Rock struggle. The paper examines Melba Patillo Beals commemoration of the milestone decision in her first-person account of the violent confrontation that helped shape the civil rights movement. In "Warriors Don't Cry" by Melba Patillo Beals, Beals' depiction of racism in Little Rock, Arkansas, reveals that she was not only a student during the Civil Rights Movement but also had to be a warrior who fought against segregation in the South. By examining Beals' memoirs, the paper shows how her real life experiences, particularly her experiences with desegregation, closely approximate the idea of a warrior.

From the Paper:

"In the beginning, the element of the warrior in Beals is directly related to the desegregation of her high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the book, there were two things that saved Beal when she walked in Little Rock High. One was the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, which "brought the promise of integration to Little Rock, Arkansas"(55). Yet, the ruling only paved the way for integration, the real battle was hard-won for the nine black teenagers chosen to be the front line in the desegregation of Central High School in 1957. These teenagers had to fight a battle that was both civil and governmental, fighting against a rampaging mob and the heavily armed Arkansas National Guard, dispatched by Governor Orval Faubus to subvert federal law and bar them from entering the school. The second thing that saved her was when President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded, "by sending in soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, the elite "Screaming Eagles,"(177) which transformed Melba Patillo Beals and her eight friends into reluctant warriors on the battlefield of civil rights."

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