Racism In Warriors Don T Cry By Melba Pattillo Beals

797 Words2 Pages

Racism is an attribute that has often plagued all of American society’s existence. Whether it be the earliest examples of slavery that occurred in America, or the cases of racism that happens today, it has always been a problem. However, this does not mean that people’s overall opinions on racial topics have always stayed the same as prior years. This is especially notable in the 1994 memoir Warriors Don’t Cry. The memoir occurred in 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas and discusses the Melba Pattillo Beals attempt to integrate after the Brown vs. Board of Education court case. Finally, in Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals discusses the idea that freedom is achievable through conflicts involving her family, school life, and friends. The aspect that affected her the most often would be the conflicts that occurred to her family throughout the story, which she would realize that freedom …show more content…

One of the earliest events that happened to Melba was the attack that happened in the bathroom. The event occurred near the start of her time in Central, when a group of boys attacked her and she had to be protected by Danny, and when she brought this up to the school board they pushed her away by stating “Well in order to do anything, we need an adult witness.” (Beals pg 108-109) This showed her that the school had no interest in protecting her, which made her start to stand up to protect herself. The second important event that occurred was when Danny left after a month of protecting her, which made her think “Warriors keep moving, they don't stop to lick their wounds and cry.” (Beals pg 128) This was an event that pushed Melba to overcome the problems that were occurring to her, and gave her, her first hero. All of the events that happened to Melba made her be able to stand up for her freedom in times where she was at her

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