Growing up as a teenager, Melba Pattillo Beals had to fight one of the most courageous wars in history. No, not a war that took place in the trenches of a battlefield, but a war that took place in the halls of an American high schoola war against color. Melba was one of nine black students who was involved in one of the most important civil rights movements in American history. These nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were the first to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 4, 1957. This was a major turning point for blacks all across the United States and opened the way for other blacks to begin attending white schools. Melba managed to survive her days at Central High School and wrote about her extraordinary "battles" and experiences in her autobiography, Warriors Don't Cry. Melba began her story with her childhood in Little Rock, Arkansas. She lived with her mother, grandma, and brother in a strict and religious household. Her family had come to accept the fact that they would always be mistreated because of their color. In the South this mistreatment of blacks was seen as perfectly normal, but Melba saw things a little differently. As a young girl, she experienced first hand how awful it was to be segregated against and be constantly ridiculed simply because of her color. Unlike most people, though, she wanted to do something about it and prayed for an opportunity that would allow her to fight back and hopefully make a difference. On May 17, 1954, Melba's opportunity began to emerge. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In spite of the Supreme Court ruling, Arkansas did not begin to integrate its schools. Eventually, a federal court ordered Central High School in Little Rock to begin admitting black students in 1957 in order to begin the state's process of desegregation. Melba saw this as the perfect chance to make a difference in her hometown. She was one of nine courageous students who decided to try to attend the all-white Central High School. Although all the students knew it would not be easy to be the first black students to integrate, it was a lot more strenuous and difficult than anyone of them had imagined.
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.
Beals made history When the Governor of the State didn’t let the Blacks into the High School so the President sent the Soldier of the 101st to the state to escort them through the mob of Angry Whites. During this people shouted ugly words,, raised their fist to the Blacks, and Looked horrified of the Blacks while Beals and the Other Little Rock nine were getting escorted through the Town to the School. Beals said ‘’Some of the White people looked horrified, While others raised their fist, others shouted ugly Words,’’ Beals reaction to this is she felt sad and proud she felt proud that the country would do all of this to escort them to the school but Beals was sad that they had to go to such great lengths. Beals said that ‘’She was proud that I lived in a country that would go this far to bring justice to a little tock Girl like me but sad that they had to go to such great lengths.’’ Then the Soldiers of the 101st made a protective cocoon, and escorted them through the mob of Whites that did not want the blacks to be in there society. How this event affected the society is when Beals went to school with other Whites she broke a little more of the Color Barrier. To Conclude Melba Beals changed the mind of some of the Whites, and break the color
Martin Luther King once said, "we must live together as brothers or perish as fools." This statement illuminates the importance of the features of concern, compassion, and knowledge. The color of a person’s skin tone would result in harsh and unfair treatment. Even though they would be alienated by their peers and others, many African Americans chose to stand up for their rights. These truths were revealed when the famous little rock nine took their courageous stand regardless of their odds. In the novel, Warriors don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals and a Roundtable discussion facilitated by NBC news, the disturbing truths behind the struggles of integration are brought to life.
All of these children had to be integrated into that high school for the good of the future. It was a huge part in the movement of segregation and all of them should be proud of what they did. Melba also did this voluntarily, not even telling her parents that she had signed up for the integration fearing that they would say no. She wanted to be just as equal as the whites and if sacrificing herself for the sake of the greater good was the way the way to go then Melba wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. They all knew what they were going into and did it for the greater good anyway. Their parents supported them all the way through expressing to them that change was
As Beals' journey begins so do the warrior references, even before Melba herself is capable of realizing it. As Melba fights for her survival in only her first week of life, she is already being sung "On the Battlefield for My Lord" by her grandmother (Beals, 5). This foreshadows the impending war she will go on to fight as well as instilling her personal, family and religious values in the reader's mind. Beals, born on a day of war - the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, grows up in a world where she is taught to be strong, yet allow herself to be pushed down by whites. "As a toddler, growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1945, I felt safe only in my sepia-toned world, a cocoon of familiar people and places. I knew that there were white people living somewhere far away and we didn't do things together. My folks never explained why I should be frightened of those white people." (6) In this early quote from the memoirs, the foundations of Beals' warrior insight may be witnessed, as well as how she slowly came to be surprised at the violence that wo...
Throughout his literature, James Baldwin discusses the issues of racial inequality within America and discusses reasons for the conflicts between races, proposing his solutions to the problems. One of the most important and recurring motifs between his works is the idea of history; the history of whites in western society and its origin in European thinking and the history of the American Negro, whose history is just as American as his white counterpart’s. The importance of these histories as being one combined “American history” is integral to the healing process between the two races. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision is a landmark event for blacks and whites alike, and the events following three years later in Little Rock, Arkansas mark the beginning of a long journey to fulfill the promise of equal education made by the Supreme Court. The 1957 events in Little Rock quickly became the nationally covered story of the Little Rock Nine, a legacy that still lives on today despite a James Baldwin prediction made in his essay “Take Me to the Water.” Specifically, nine African-American students were given permission by the Little Rock school board to attend Central High School, one of the nation’s top 40 high schools, integrating a formally all-white campus. During the initial weeks, these students were prevented from entering the school by US military summoned by the Arkansas governor. The Little Rock case drew immediate media attention and became a nationwide symbol of the civil rights movement. The story of the Little Rock Nine embodies James Baldwin’s arguments and observations regarding necessity of education as a crucial step to achievin...
The case started in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was black. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help (All Deliberate Speed pg 23). The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. The NAACP was looking for a case like this because they figured if they could just expose what had really been going on in "separate but equal society" that the circumstances really were not separate but equal, bur really much more disadvantaged to the colored people, that everything would be changed. The NAACP was hoping that if they could just prove this to society that the case would uplift most of the separate but equal facilities. The hopes of this case were for much more than just the school system, the colored people wanted to get this case to the top to abolish separate but equal.
Melba Pattillo beals was one of the first African American students to go to an all white school that was later integrated. She was brave to be one of the first nine to go into an integrated school. On the first day of the school about 50 soldiers came to her house to take her to school, at school white kids shouted mean insults, showed their fists and did not treat her and the other black kids kindly. Melba and the other black kids did not react as they were
The next big step in the civil rights movement came in 1954, with the BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA case, where Thurgood Marshall, representing Brown, argued that segregation was against the 4th Amendment of the American constitution. The Supreme Court ruled, against President Eisenhower’s wishes, in favour of Brown, which set a precedent in education, that schools should no longer be segregated. This was the case which completely overturned the Jim Crow Laws by overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Melba Pattillo Beals was part of a very important group in history. She was one of the first African American to go to an integrated school along with 8 others.“Step by step we climbed upward-where none of my people had ever before walked as a student.” (Melba, p.18 ) Back then whites thought that they were more powerful than other such as african americans. In 1896 there was a court case called Plessy v. Ferguson, and Plessy wanted “ separate but equal” but he lost. In 1952 there was another court case for the same reason but having african americans go to white schools, called Brown v. Board Of Education and Linda Brown won the case. Then in 1954 they made the
In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help. The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. Other black parents joined Brown, and, in 1951, the NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools (NAACP).
Melba was one of the little rock nine students. She was a colored person that went to an all white school during segregation. The school she went to is Central High. Melba struggled through school because of the segregationist. She lasts the whole year with out leaving, but how did she do it? She had to use strength to make it through the year and she had many help her. She would talk and write to god, she would talk to her grandma, she would use advice her 101st soldier gave her, but most of all she believed in herself. That is how Melba got through school.
Melba Beals faced many challenges in doing this as Beals states here, ”We stepped up the front door of Central High School and crossed that threshold into that place where angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go.” It was dangerous for Beals to go to this school, since there were “angry segregationist mobs” trying to do everything they could to keep her from going to this school, she was facing danger and threats from segregationists. Furthermore, she was going to an all white school with only a few of her fellow African American students coming with her. Going to a new school is scary for most people but, Beals was going to a new white school, where she was not welcome by the white students. Facing angry segregationist mobs and going to a new all white school were certainly challenging to Beals, and life changing events. Though she faced these challenges, she responded by remaining determined, and
“When (African-American soldiers) were told they couldn’t be in the Army, he said, ‘Yes, we can,’ and as a Tuskegee Airman he showed them it could be done,” she said. The airman worked hard to show that black men could get the job done just as white men. After receiving his pilot’s license, he joined the other black troops in the army. He was one of the 1,000 black airmen who trained in Tuskegee, during World War II. “Bob embodied the courage and strength of the Tuskegee Airmen.
The Supreme Court is perhaps most well known for the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. By declaring that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Kevern Verney says a ‘direct reversal of the Plessy … ruling’1 58 years earlier was affected. It was Plessy which gave southern states the authority to continue persecuting African-Americans for the next sixty years. The first positive aspect of Brown was was the actual integration of white and black students in schools. Unfortunately, this was not carried out to a suitable degree, with many local authorities feeling no obligation to change the status quo. The Supreme Court did issue a second ruling, the so called Brown 2, in 1955. This forwarded the idea that integration should proceed 'with all deliberate speed', but James T. Patterson tells us even by 1964 ‘only an estimated 1.2% of black children ... attended public schools with white children’2. This demonstrates that, although the Supreme Court was working for Civil Rights, it was still unable to force change. Rathbone agrees, saying the Supreme Court ‘did not do enough to ensure compliance’3. However, Patterson goes on to say that ‘the case did have some impact’4. He explains how the ruling, although often ignored, acted ‘relatively quickly in most of the boarder s...