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A reaction and summary to the book “Warriors Don’t Cry”, the book is about the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 By Package Warriors Don’t Cry The book, Warriors Don’t Cry, is a sad, yet encouraging story of a courageous young lady. At the age of thirteen Melba Optimal Bells volunteered to integrate Central high in Little Rock, Arkansas. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs.. Board Of Education of Topeka, Kansas that separate schools for Whites and blacks were illegal. Melba often dreamed of seeing the inside of Central High.
The best education and preparation for college was believed to happen inside of those doors. When she finally told her grandmother and mother that she volunteered to integrate they began to fear for M??l??e’s life. This memoir Of M??l??e’s diary and her mother’s notes explain how she decided to integrate with eight other students and the profound struggles they faced in every day life. In 1957, her fate began. Two weeks after the first attempt to integrate Central High the “Little Rock Nine” stepped foot into the huge and overwhelming school.
The nine of them faced extreme violence every day, The teachers and students never et them walk by without some kind of rude comment. Melba was tripped, kicked, spat on, and verbally abused. Every day she spent in Central High there was a new struggle to overcome. She held strong and would only cry when she was behind the doors of her bedroom. The only place she could escape reality. Melba was one of “God’s Warriors”. When Melba decided to volunteer for integrating Central High, she never told her family about her decision. The students that were to start the integration at Central High were being named on the news.
When M??l??e’s family was watching he news that evening, that is when her family finally found out vatu Melba had done. Not many people agreed with what she was doing, not even her own friends. When the time came for Melba to actually go through With integration her family was horrified at what she did. Melba said, ” All night they yelled and paced and discussed. By morning, Mama wasn’t talking to me. She ate breakfast with a frown on her face (Peg. 32). ” Melba had about a month to prepare for her fantastic trip inside Central High. When the time came for integration to take place, the governor of Arkansas,
Governor Arrival Faustus sent the National Guard to stop integration. The troops would block the doors so the “Little Rock Nine” could not enter. When the black students tried to pass the troops, the troops would close ranks and form a barrier to stop them from entering& There were hundreds of white people gathered to protest integration. They were yelling obscenities, throwing rocks, and spitting on the nine youths. The protesters even started chasing the black students and were yelling, “Get them, get those naggers out of here (Peg. 50). The first day Of integration did not go as smoothly as planned. None Of the students even got into the school, instead they had to retreat for fear of their lives. After the first day of attempted segregation and for the time to come, M??l??e’s house phone was ringing Of the hook. The calls ranged from people giving death threats to people wanting interviews. When someone called and said they were going to drive by M??l??e’s house and throw a bomb at it, her Grandmother stood guard all night. “Grandma went directly to her room, where she took the shotgun she called Mr..
Highlighting from its leather case. That night, she set up her guard post near the window to the side yard where she thought was most alienable (Peg. 89). ” These phone calls never got the best of anyone in the house. For the most part they just simply ignored them. When integration was not working, the president of the United States ordered the 1st Airborne to see to it that integration does take place. When Melba arrived at school the first day the “Screaming Eagles” were there, she felt safe for once. The protesters weren’t yelling and calm was restored for the time being.
Each of the nine student got personal bodyguards, M??l??e’s bodyguard was named Danny. He escorted her through Central High. He couldn’t go into the lassoers with her, so in the classrooms is where she received a lot of torment. One boy shouted, “You’ll just goanna sit still and let this Niger come in like this? I’m leaving (Peg. 135). ” Melba received many insults and violence when she had to walk in the halls between classes. Melba is pushed down stairs and even slapped in the face by an adult for integrating. Danny also received insults for “protecting a Niger”.
The 1st guarding the school for about a month and then was ordered to leave. When Melba got to school when they left she was so frightened of what he student would do to her without Danny around. Instead, the National Guard took over. This time the Guard was not going to block the doors from integration, but to keep the peace inside Central High, The Guard didn’t protect the nine students: they just watched the other students agitate them. Melba said, “Slouching against the wall were members of the Arkansas National Guard, looking on like spectators at a sports event-certainly not like men sent to guard our safety (Peg. 63). ” The people of Central High wanted these nine black students out of school, When en of the black students got expelled for throwing soup on a couple of white kids, this got all the other white students trying to provoke the remaining black students to do something that they could get expelled for. These white youths were doing horrible things to Melba, such as holding a knife to her stomach, and throwing burning pieces of paper at her. One of these white students befriended Melba and warned her of danger. His name was Link, and he was playing a very two-faced game.
He would go to these secret meetings, where everyone was thinking of ways to provoke and hurt the “Little Rock Nine”. He would get all the information pretending to be against integration, then pass it on to Melba so she could Stay out Of harms way. Melba was unsure why he was helping her. He helped her get through the rest of the hellish year at Central High without her getting seriously hurt. The end Of the year had finally come, and one Of the nine students was going to graduate. After she finished the year, she became a celebrity. She and her other black classmates were being flown all over the country and being given awards and appraise.
Melba was proud of herself and her friends, they became Warriors ND nothing could take that pride away from them. Melba Bells personal narrative was ridiculously different from the Boyhoods text. The text just sums up the major points in the civil rights movement, It has a paragraph on the integration at Central High, in Little Rock, Arkansas. It doesn’t give any credit to those nine young individuals who went through hell at a school! The text does have a picture of one of the Little Rock nine. Wow! You would think paving the way for school integration in this country they would at least get their names mentioned, but no, just a picture.
The book explains the bickering between Governor Faustus and President Eisenhower and how the Governor brought in the National Guard and how the President brought in the ICC SST Airborne of the IS_S. Army. The text also just speaks of the “federal action” and not the action of the angry protestors and how they hurt Melba Bells and cheated her out Of a year of her life. The book also fails to tell us Of the horrors of actually went on in Central High. The horrors being spit on, smacked in the face, being called names, having golf balls thrown at you, and having your life heartened.