A Warrior In Many Ways In Warriors Don't Cry

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In 1957, nine African-American teenagers were integrated into an all white school for the first time in the South. This group became known as the Little Rock Nine, who together, battled through many horrors inside the Arkansas high school. The nine had to face many terrors including the ones caused by the many people opposed to the integration, some even being law enforcement and government officials. These people protested against, physically abused and threatened the nine throughout the entire year. These experiences promoted Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the nine, to write a book Warriors Don't Cry which documents her time at the highschool. Melba had to become a physical and emotional warrior during the year to persevere over the pure hatred of those who protested against the integration. In the traditional image of a warrior, most picture a knight with a shiny sword, however, Melba’s only weapons were herself and the few people who supported her. Melba often wrote in her book small comments about having to be aware of all of her surroundings at all times. She knew what hallways not to go down at certain times and the areas that were the most dangerous and the times those risks increased. Melba also used a form of reverse psychology to deter her abusers. 

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On page 169 it writes, “I got hit across the back with a tennis racquet. I managed to smile and say ‘Thank you’”. In the school Melba developed some characteristics to get her through those dark days as well. For example, she had an awe inspiring amount of self control and patience. If she were to fight back against her tormentors there would be a reason to have her expelled, so when she was beaten and bullied, she would do nothing no matter how much she wanted to. From observing the guards who protected the nine, Melba also learned how to stand straight and appear like a fighter. Other than herself Melba also survived the school year with the people in her life. The very important ones, who supported her the entire year, were her family. This included her mother Lois, her brother Conrad, and her grandmother India who lived with them. Her mother worked to provide for the family, her brother would give her positive comments when she returned home, and her grandmother often counseled her when she was having doubts. Her grandmother would even sit by their door every night with a gun in case any anti-integration extremists came to their house. She was also supported by the other eight who were the only ones who truly understood what she endured in the highschool. 

Others included Danny, her 101st Airborne guard, and Link, a white peer who secretly helped her near the end of the year. Obviously, she was no knight with a deadly sword, but she was a strong warrior who used her own wits, words, and loved ones to fight against the hatred opposing her. Like any warrior, Melba engaged in many conflicts in her life, like those caused by the integration and many before and after due to her skin color. At the beginning of the book she explains one of the biggest battles of her life, racism. To illustrate, her entire life she was addressed as slurs and was treated lesser than the white population. One example of this was documented in her book, “They were certain the bill overcharged them by twenty-two dollars... Although Grandma approached the grocer in a calm respectful way, he shouted back at her in an angry voice -- loud enough for everyone within a block to hear,” This is just one example out of the thousands that plague her everyday life. The next, equally important, battle was actually being able to integrate. 

They fought hard in supreme courts against the Arkansas governor to even be able to set foot in the school. In addition to these more broad wars, Melba also faced specific battles, in particular, her first two days at Central. On her first day an astounding crown mobbed around the school. The nine barely made it out alive, let alone enter the school. The police force guarding the nine would block them from entering and escaping the crowd who were on the verge of hanging them. On their next attempt the nine managed to get in after school had started, but they were only able to stay for a few hours. While they were in class the mob broke into the school and the nine were rushed to an office where the white officials brainstormed how to get them out of the school. Melba recalled their ideas on page 80 as “‘We may have to let the mob have one of these kids so we can distract them long enough to get the others out.’” Eventually, they were able to sneak all nine through to a basement area where a car was waiting and sped out through the terrifying mob who were grabbing the car and throwing various objects at it. This was Melba’s start to the integration, nothing but pure loathing and violence, all because she wanted to go to school. She also had to go through the many skirmishes inside the school. 

Distinctively, the incident where she had acid thrown into her eyes, the occosion where balls of ignited paper were thrown at her, and all the times were she was tripped or hit. Melba was a warrior through the many wars of her civil rights contribution and managed to survive all of them. Melba’s year at Central High was never effortless or easy, but it was needed for quite some time. The oppression of African - American people in the South had gone on longer than any other place in the United States. It was time for the hostility to not be so easily or widely accepted. When adults physically abuse teenagers trying to receive a rightful education, the animosity of the human race has gone on far enough. There was no reason nine young people going to highschool should have sparked so much destruction across a country other than the ignorance and the taught ways of that time. Melba Pattillo Beals and the eight others were true and definite heroes of their age. Melba was only sixteen when she acted with more courage than almost the entirety of the country, and despite having doubts, as any sensible person would, she rose to the occasion and never surrendered making her an indisputable warrior. 

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