Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals | Teen Ink

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals MAG

By Anonymous

Can you imagine being one of nine black students chosen to integrate a school of over 2,000 white students? Warriors Don’t Cry is a compelling memoir of Melba Pattillo’s life during the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was a pioneer during that tortuous year.

In 1957, Little Rock was not an easy place for a black teenage girl to live. Pattillo had a rough start in life. She was born on December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor Day. A few weeks later she was on the verge of death because a white nurse ­refused to care for her. “The nightmare that surrounded my birth was proof positive that destiny had assigned me a special task,” she recounts.

When Pattillo volunteered to be one of the first black students to integrate the all-white high school, she hoped to show white students that blacks were their equals. But she didn’t know the battle that she would face.

On her first day, the mob ­surrounding the school was so large that she couldn’t find a way in. Some white men spotted her and tried to chase her down. Luckily, she escaped into a speeding car. ­Although Pattillo had been assigned a bodyguard, one day while walking in the hall, another student threw acid in her eyes. Had the bodyguard not been there to rinse her eyes with water, she would have gone blind.

Through this experience, Pattillo learned to have courage and patience. Her inspirational story is one-of-a-kind and opened my eyes to the extreme hardships that African-Americans have faced to get where they are today. Without warriors like Pattillo and the rest of the Little Rock Nine, segregation might still exist in America today. Now, because of the strength of these pioneers, an African-American is the front runner for this year’s presidential election.



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This article has 22 comments.


on May. 6 2014 at 7:29 pm
I don't think think you should say it's stupid because this actually happened

mms43211 said...
on Apr. 16 2014 at 5:00 pm
i dont think this book is stupid at all.....how would you feel if your were in melbas place? this book is a true inspiring book and without melba and the others  america might not be the same it is today

Lianne1234 said...
on Mar. 28 2012 at 3:05 pm
You will never know how she felt...even through she invites you to see the circumstances through her perspective, you will NEVER know how she really felt unless you were alive in 1954 and integrated...Thankyou very much...

9jamerican said...
on Jun. 28 2011 at 9:11 am
she made it seem like being half-white was a privelege. I dont think that any mixed kid should have any special priveleges because he/she is half white. It makes me mad because i have had some experiences with a bunch of mixed kids that live in philly and they have always tried to act like they were better than me. This doesn't justify that all mixed kids are like that, it just means that some of them probably are confused and think that they have special privileges. This is the confusion tht was in Melba's mind as well.

9jamerican said...
on Jun. 28 2011 at 9:04 am
This book was pretty good. I liked the fact that Melba kept me reading the book with her great and interesting details. I have sympathy for her and her struggles because now i see that the struggles of a black person (especially a black woman) weren't easy. The thing tht ticks me off is that i believe is some ways that Melba is a complete hypocrite. She told Link that she couldn't marry him because he is white and that she might get hurt because of it, yet she ended up marrying a white man. She talked about how she felt her father was weak and helpless around the white man and tht she didnt like the fact that he couldnt protect her very well, yet in the beginning when she was dedicating the book to people, she said that her father supported her in the incredible experience. That is what ticks me off the most about this book, especially beause I am a black teen. What makes me even more mad is that since Melba had a half-white child, she thought that her daughter wouldnt have to go through the same struggles as she did. Wow, that was like a slap in the face to me. I give it 3 and a half stars.

hunter232651 said...
on Mar. 23 2011 at 12:33 pm

wow...why dont u like this book

 


on Mar. 18 2011 at 11:07 am
I dont like it.

on Mar. 18 2011 at 11:06 am
No I dont like it

on Mar. 18 2011 at 11:06 am
It is because the blacks can not go to a white school.

on Mar. 18 2011 at 11:04 am
I agree because the way the segergration is going it is stupid.

peace&dance said...
on Mar. 17 2011 at 2:34 pm
didn't like this bbok i thought it was stupid.

on Oct. 24 2010 at 1:24 pm
EmilyClark BRONZE, Wayne, Pennsylvania
4 articles 0 photos 24 comments
Great book. An inspiring story. 

a.m.f BRONZE said...
on Jun. 14 2010 at 1:25 am
a.m.f BRONZE, Gainesville, Florida
3 articles 12 photos 97 comments

Favorite Quote:
"God never shuts a door unless he opens another."

This is one of the most emotional memoirs I have ever read.  It's been over two years since I last read it, but every detail in that book has been sewn into my memory. I've always heard that times were rough during the beginning stages of southern school integration, but I never knew how tragic it actually was until I opened this book.  I recommend this book to every single person.  It tells the heart breaking story of one of the Little Rock Nine who survived the process of integration in an all white high school.

deskicv34 said...
on Apr. 20 2010 at 1:51 pm
good book being in 7th grade u have cafe day............

on Jan. 7 2010 at 12:33 pm
hey.. i cnt believe i actually like it. i hate it before

on Jan. 7 2010 at 12:24 pm
i like it.. i agree with ya

on Jan. 7 2010 at 12:22 pm
i read that book and i love it.... it true and i knoe how she feels

on Nov. 18 2009 at 2:26 pm
you should really read the bookits an amazing book and its very interesting too. . . you'll like it

on Nov. 18 2009 at 2:24 pm
i'm reading this book and so far it's been a great inspiration for me to keep going and to know that i can go through anything and i can do anything i want whenever i want to do it

on Nov. 12 2009 at 6:37 pm
4everluvjc BRONZE, Plantation, Florida
3 articles 0 photos 44 comments

Favorite Quote:
nothing is impossible with God! Try him and you'll see :)

Wow...that must have been sad...I'm checking it right now!