In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down.
Throughout her experience, Melba’s views and attitudes changed quite a bit. When she first volunteered to be one of the first black students who would attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, Melba was full of excitement. She filled her thoughts with the better education she would be receiving as well as the huge step she would be taking in making sure all people of color would eventually receive a better education. She wondered about the white friends she would soon be making. Above all, she felt proud, knowing that she deserved this chance at a better life.
Even before she stepped foot in the hallways of Central High, however, Melba’s sense of excitement and anticipation began to subside and was replaced with fear and frustration. As she went through her first few months at Central, she was plagued with a daily fear for her own personal safety. She could not understand how boys and girls could be allowed to behave in such hateful and often physically abusive ways. She learned, too, that the white students attending Central High were not the only ones who displayed such hateful behavior, as many of the school’s administrators as well as the members of the local a...
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...w black classmates would worsen if their numbers dwindled any further. Lastly, she felt she would not be being true to herself, her family, or God if she gave up so easily.
One personal quality that both the Little Rock Nine as well as white people like Danny and Link must have had was the ability to resist conforming to what others wanted from them. Day after day of getting spit on, verbally assaulted, tripped, and more surely helps to chip away at a person’s sense of self-esteem and dignity. It takes a strong person who is sure of her purpose to wake up each day, knowing the battle she will face, and walk into a school, knowing she is not welcome. Likewise, the white students and adults who supported integration continued fighting for a cause they knew was unpopular and even put them in physical danger. They knew their cause was greater than their own lives.
In conclusion, in Conley’s memoir he focuses on his experience of switching schools, while in the third grade, from a predominantly African American and Latino school to a predominantly caucasian elementary school. His memoir focuses on the differences in his experiences at each school and how race and class further separated the similarities between his two schools. Conley focuses equally on race and class and how they both influenced and shaped his life, but class was the primary influence on Conley’s
Melba Pattillo Beals book, Warriors Don’t Cry, is a memoir about her experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. From a very young age Melba sees the many problems with segregation. Throughout the book she recalls several memories involving the unfairness and struggles that her, her family, and other African Americans had to go through in the South during the time of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement.
4) In Rose Place the segregation needs to stop polluting the community, it goes beyond a racial hate but also an economic disparity. Integration at Jackson Smith elementary school is important not only for the minority students, but also for the students who have always attended that school. They can learn from each other and begin to understand how the world around them functions, they will have to work with others from all different types of life. By excluding a select group of students, the community is stunting their ability to achieve a greater life then what they are currently living in. “Isolation by poverty, language, and ethnicity threatens the future opportunities and mobility of students and communities excluded from competitive schools, and increasingly threatens the future of a society where young people are not learning how to live and work effectively across the deep lines of race and class in our region.” (Orfield, Siegel-Hawley, & Kucsera, 2011, p. 4). Through teachings, meetings and ongoing work this community could learn to open their doors to allow others in giving them the opportunity to become more effective members of society and hopeful helping squash out the remaining remnants of racial
The Jim Crow Laws were the basis of everyday interactions between black and white people in the South. Melba Beals and the other “Little Rock Nine” braving the walk towards the doors of Central High School and several other landmark events spearheading the demise of these laws. In the book “Warriors Don’t Cry”, Melba Beals recalls her life during the 1950’s in America. In the south, more specifically Little Rock, the Jim Crow laws were no longer contested.
Board of Education, Melba Pattillo Beals will always be known as one of the first black students to go to a white school. Her race have hoped of this for years now, and the Little Rock Nine had made it with the support of the general army. People went as far as to hurt them, resulting as far for the government to support nine black students. This is what it takes to charge forward, or to hit a home run like Jackie Robinson.
While Sanders’ narrative primarily focuses on the Child Development Group of Mississippi, Black Mississippians historically valued education and focused careful attention to the construction of education systems that empowered Black children in disenfranchised social systems. Their vision was clear; Black students should have access to high quality, free education that exists outside of white supremacist regulations, but also empowers those students to navigate the volatile systems of power that pervade American society. According to Sanders, “Black parents focused not on the idea of their children sitting in classrooms with white students, but rather on their children’s right to an equal education,” (2016, p. 12). Thus, Black communities in Mississippi understood “good education” not as integrated schools, but schools that directly served the various needs of the children in their
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
Anne Moody’s memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, is an influential insight into the existence of a young girl growing up in the South during the Civil-Rights Movement. Moody’s book records her coming of age as a woman, and possibly more significantly, it chronicles her coming of age as a politically active Negro woman. She is faced with countless problems dealing with the racism and threat of the South as a poor African American female. Her childhood and early years in school set up groundwork for her racial consciousness. Moody assembled that foundation as she went to college and scatter the seeds of political activism. During her later years in college, Moody became active in numerous organizations devoted to creating changes to the civil rights of her people. These actions ultimately led to her disillusionment with the success of the movement, despite her constant action. These factors have contributed in shaping her attitude towards race and her skepticism about fundamental change in society.
In the book Warriors Don’t Cry Melba wanted to integrate schools because she knew that if they did step up things would begin to change and white people would begin to accept black people as equals. Yes, there are things that were done to Melba and the rest of the kids that could be considered abuse but everyone involved knew it was for the greater good. Melba even makes it known she wants to be there from this quote, “This is going to work. It will take a lot more patience and more strength from me, but it’s going to work. It takes more time than I thought. But we’re going to have integration in Little Rock. (pg.161)” We can see that Melba wants to do whatever she can to get into Central High School and is willing to go the extra mile. Frankly if Melba didn’t stick it out racism might have gone on longer than expected. Melba even reflects on this, “But Grandma is right, if I don’t go back, they will think they have won. They will think they can use soldiers to frighten us, and we’ll always have to obey them. (pg.55-56)” So sending these kids into a place where they would be frightened and attacked was a necessary sacrifice that needed to be made in order for the elimination of
During the essay the author lost her innocence but graduated to a deeper appreciation and clarity of who she is and who she could become. In her school with no visible fences keeping the children within the schoolyard, there were the invisible fences of racism that tried to limit them from reaching their full potential. The author concludes, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death" (841).
Bell hooks knows about the challenges of race and class, and why some people have a harder time than others in achieving the American Dream. It is normal to feel uncomfortable and awkward arriving at a new school for the first time, but this was something completely different. For bell hooks, walking through the halls with eyes staring at her as if she was an alien, she realized that schooling for her would never be the same. She describes her feelings of inequality a...
We remember Mrs. Lithebe's words, "For what else are we born?" and we see that there are some white men who do care. We also learn of James Jarvis's suffering and fear.
The same consistent, expressive voice introduces Ms. Angelou's effective strategy of comparison and contrast. By comparing what the black schools don't have, such as 'lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis courts, nor climbing ivy,' reveals not only a clear illustration of what luxuries the white schools in the forties had but also how unjust the system was. The adults at the graduation focus on the differences that were previously left unspoken. The black principal's voice fades as he describes "the friendship of kindly people to those less fortunate then themselves" and the white commencement speaker implies that" the white kids would have a chance to become Galileo's.... and our boys would try to be Jesse Owenes..." The author's emotions vary from the first proclamation that "I was the person of the moment" to the agonizing thoughts that it "was awful to be a Negro and have no control over my life" to the moment of epiphany: "we are on top again."
The time has come again to celebrate the achievements of all black men and women who have chipped in to form the Black society. There are television programs about the African Queens and Kings who never set sail for America, but are acknowledged as the pillars of our identity. In addition, our black school children finally get to hear about the history of their ancestors instead of hearing about Columbus and the founding of America. The great founding of America briefly includes the slavery period and the Antebellum south, but readily excludes both black men and women, such as George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, and Mary Bethune. These men and women have contributed greatly to American society. However, many of us only know brief histories regarding these excellent black men and women, because many of our teachers have posters with brief synopses describing the achievements of such men and women. The Black students at this University need to realize that the accomplishments of African Americans cannot be limited to one month per year, but should be recognized everyday of every year both in our schools and in our homes.
There were many acts of violence that took place during Moody’s childhood that helped prove to her that interracial relationships were unacceptable. For example, white people burned down the Taplin family home, killing everyone inside. Moody recalls being in shock and everyone in the car sitting still in dead silence, “We sat in the car for about an hour, silently looking at this debris and the ashes that covered the nine charcoal-burned bodies . . . I shall never forget the expressions on the faces of the Negroes. There was almost unanimous hopelessness in them.” It wasn’t until highschool when she came to her first realization about the racial problems and violence that have been plaguing her when a fourteen-year-old African American boy is murdered for having whistled at a white woman. Before this, Moody was under the impression that “Evil Spirits” were to blame for the mysterious deaths of African Americans, “Up ...