“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things,” Leonardo Da Vinci explains. In the 1950s, racism and equality was a big problem between blacks and whites in America, especially in the south. Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other African-American students in Little Rock, Arkansas stepped up to integrate the all white Central High School and they were forever remembered. As shown through the experiences in the autobiography Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, Melba is characterized as a religious, determined, and considerate young woman.
The first characteristic Melba is depicted to be is religious and faithful in God. After an angry white man tries to rape her, Melba recalls, “I wore my knees out praying night after night—I
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Before Melba introduces the eight students who will go to school with her, she states, “At one point there had been sixteen others, but some of them chose not to participate because of the threats of violence” (25). This quote is powerful because it shows that Melba is a true warrior and not a quitter like the other seven people that abandon the integration. Melba is a determined person because she too receives threats of violence, yet she does not retreat in cowardice; she stays and pushes through the long school year. After a day at school, Melba writes in her diary, “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” (117). Melba knows what it will take to make the integration a success and is willing to do anything to make it happen. She is willing to work harder, pray harder, and be stronger than she already has been. Melba is successful and finishes her first year at Central High making her determined spirit and attitude pay
“Thank you” (Beals, pg. 246). Two simple words Melba Pattillo says to those who try to insult her about her skin color or that she is part of the integration at Little Rock’s Central High School. Nevertheless Melba continues to keep her head up with confidence and simply say “Thank you.” Melba does this to show her bullies that they are not bothering her and cannot make her want to leave Central High. Melba continues to fight with confidence throughout the memoir which allows her to finish her one year at Central High School in Little Rock,
?Namaste? quote meaning the God in me sees and honors the God in you. Melba says this quote at the end of the book meaning she is no longer a child but an adult. Throughout the book Warriors Don?t Cry Melba goes from a child to an adult cause of integration. She shows many characteristics though this process. Some are the Melba is Strong young girl, religious, and different.
The author's purpose for writing Warriors Don't Cry is tell a personal story of her own to remind the world when peace was no option for a black person. She wanted to have her story out in the world for others to learn and read from. Melba went through much in her life only because she was born different. While normal white teens had fun with boyfriends and went to parties, she went through a mental and physical war. Melba wrote her story with no sugar coating, she gave what she felt and what she did. She wanted to write a story where it would give the reader a glimpse at the life a colored person once went
Throughout Melba’s experience she was robbed of many things. One being her freedom. Melba planned to meet Vince, her crush, at a wrestling match. Grandma India couldn’t take her to the match because it wasn’t safe for her, “‘It’s just too dangerous for you to go there amongst all those white people”’ (52). Melba didn’t like the fact that she couldn’t go, but her mother and Grandma were only trying to keep her away from any harm. She was also robbed of being able to see her friends. Melba wanted to go to the community center to see her friend, Minnijean. She couldn’t go because of Grandma India, “‘But you ain’t going to no community center”’ (44). This also goes alongside with her freedom being
So when the first day of school for the integration has come, there have been riots, crowds of segregationists, just a bunch of people rioting. The first day was horrible, as soon as the LR9 came in, it wet crazy. They had been bullied throughout the day, physically, mentally. Every way that the whites could do, they did. It was like this for almost all the way through the year. Sometimes Melba came home crying, bruised, and many more things. Her mother and
But eventually everything seem to fall into place. “Just as military school had slowly grown on me, so had academic life.” (pg 130) Wes began to play basketball and he was very good. He played against nationally ranked players at various tournaments and camps.
In Warriors Don’t Cry, Beals depict the idea that personal strength is often hidden by fear but can be revealed unintentionally. “My heart raced with fear and anticipation...I was almost hypnotized by the wonder of it all” (57). This was Melba’s response to entering the press conference and being called “miss” by a white reporter. When entering the room Melba’s fear paralyzes her and she lacks the strength to voice her opinions about her return to Central High School. Although she believes she is doing the right thing, her fear temporarily stops her from pursuing it. “I felt myself speak aloud before I was ready” (57). Melba then responds to the reporter’s question without thinking. Not recognizing her own voice, Melba is astonished when she begins to answer the question. She didn’t realize she had the courage to verbalize her feelings. “For the first time, I knew that working for integration was the right thing for me to be doing” (57). Consequently, this was Melba’s thought process for what was transpiring. Melba was attending an interview with the reporters. She felt that she belonged at the school just as the other kids and felt that fighting for equality was just and righteous. With all of these occurrences, Melba’s character indicates the idea that when facing unfamiliar situations and people Melba discovered a personal strength she didn’t realize existed.
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
The years of the 1950’s and 1960’s were a time of pride for the American people. Great accomplishments occurred in those twenty years, including Neil Armstrong’s space landing, women’s roles in were changing with feminist movement, and there were government efforts to ease discrimination against minorities. But America was not perfect in every aspect. Discrimination and racism against minorities survived throughout the civil rights movement, although there were major efforts to stop it. One accomplishment, documented by Melba Pattillo Beals, was made in 1957 following the 1954 Supreme Court case that began desegregating schools. In her memoir, Warriors Don't Cry, Beals explains the horrifying year she endured while integrating a white school,
Melba Pattillo Beals, was one of the first African-American students to go to Little Rock Central High School, she and her Eight friends then came to be the "Little Rock Nine". While they were at school, only a few other students behaved/acted normal around them. Most days Melba would be worried if she was going to get hurt, when she was most-likely going to have to all the segregationists' telling the other student's to do so. She went through hard times until the soldiers came, but even they couldn't stop everything that was happening. When the soldiers left, she was scared, but after a while, Melba held her head high, and moved on, and became stronger and braver. I face challenges every day that are similar to Melba. One challenge is when
“The Credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who strives valiantly, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, and who spends himself in worthy causes. Who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat” by Theodore Roosevelt. I agree with this quote because if you don’t work hard for what you want or what you trying to do, who going to notice to give you and credit. It's okay to fail, knowing you did everything you can. In The Warriors Heart by Eric Greiten deserves a lot of credit for being a navy seal, going to college, exploring the world, helping aid workers heal orphaned children and lived in camps.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s a momentous movement broke out in the United States in pursuit of making a change in our nation for the better. This movement, titled the Civil Rights Movement, spread like a wildfire throughout the nation and made it possible for African Americans to have rights equal to those of whites. While at the end, this movement was successful in desegregating everything and achieving equality in the laws that were passed, it was not successful in integrating all people and changing the actions of others so that African Americans were treated equal to the white’s. Civil Rights Activists Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Rosa Parks, and many other inspirational black leaders played key roles in lighting the fire that was
Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all had life changing experiences, faced resistance and they also changed their countries. These individuals changed their countries in positive ways. Melba Pattillo Beal’s was the first African American to ever enroll in a all white school. Before her enrolment the schools were all segregated. Her enrolment in an all white school was the first major step towards desegregation in her country. Jackie Robinson’s was the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball. Before his integration into Major League Baseball all African American players were forced to play in the Negro Leagues. His integration in the the Major Leagues was not an easy one. He faced a lot of resistance but by sticking it out and proving he was as good of a player as the white players he paved the way for other African Americans to follow in his footsteps. Feng Ru’s was the first Chinese aviator and he was also the first chinese aviator to ever leave
In September of 1960, Central is again open to integration, but only two of the nine students are readmitted. They eventually graduate. Melba begins to attend San Francisco State University with predominantly white students. One night in 1962, while she is at school, a white soldier named John comes to her room to meet her roommate. There is mutual attraction, and soon they are engaged to be married. Melba relates how she keeps in touch with Link during this time. But when Link hears that she is getting married, and to a white man, he is furious, as Melba had always maintained she could not date a white man. They never speak again. Six months later, Melba and John are married. They have a daughter named Kelli. Seven years after their daughter’s
Melba stood at the sixteenth street entrance of Central High School, but she was somewhere else. She wasn’t paying attention so she was vulnerable to making big mistakes. she wasn’t keeping her guard up and in the distance, Andy was yelling her name and coming after her with his gang. He was getting closer and there wasn’t anywhere for Melba to run because the boys would outrun her. A blond haired white boy whispered to her that he was going to help her. Link said he was going to call her mean names like the rest of the boys, but he was going to give her his keys to his car so she can get away.