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The landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, brought the promise of integration to Little Rock, Arkansas, but it was hard-won for the nine black teenagers chosen to integrate Central High School in 1957. They ran the gauntlet between a rampaging mob and the heavily armed Arkansas National Guard, dispatched by Governor Orval Faubus to subvert federal law and bar them from entering the school. President Dwight D.
Eisenhower responded by sending in soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, the elite "Screaming Eagles" - and transformed Melba Pattillo and her eight friends into reluctant warriors on the battlefield of civil rights.
May 17, 1994, marks the fortieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which was argued and won by Thurgood Marshall, whose passion and presence emboldened the Little Rock struggle. Melba Pattillo Beals commemorates the milestone decision in this first-person account of her ordeal at the center of the violent confrontation that helped shape the civil rights movement.
Beals takes us from the lynch mob that greeted the terrified fifteen-year-old to a celebrity homecoming with her eight compatriots thirty years later, on October 23, 1987, hosted by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in the mansion that Faubus built. As they returned to tour the halls of the school, gathering from myriad professions and all corners of the country, they were greeted by the legacy of their courage - a bespectacled black teenager, the president of the student body at Central High.
- Beals chronicles her harrowing junior year at Central High, when she began each school day by polishing her saddle shoes and bracing herself for battle. Nothing, not even the 101st Airborne Division, could blunt the segregationists' brutal organized campaign of terrorism that included telephone threats, insults and assaults at school, brigades of attacking mothers, rogue police, restroom fireball attacks, acid-throwers, vigilante stalkers, economic blackmail, and finally, a price upon Melba's head.
With the help of her English-teacher mother; her eight fellow warriors; and her gun-toting, Bible-and-Shakespeare-loving grandmother - who taught her Gandhi's mind games and spiritual strength - Melba survived. "Dignity," said Grandmother India, "is a state of mind, just like freedom.
These are both precious gifts from God that no one can take away unless you allow them to." And faced with disapproval from parts of the black community, Melba made unlikely friends: Link, a white student who came with a gang to attack her - then saved her and became her underground spy. And Danny, the soldier assigned to protect her, who warned, "You will have to become a soldier. Never let your enemy know what you are feeling. Never let them see you cry."
- Drawn from her personal diary, Warriors Don't Cry is Beals' riveting true story of an embattled teenager who paid for integration with her innocence. From a junior year like no other - a year that would hold no sweet sixteen party, no chance for a part in the school play - she emerged with indestructible faith, courage, strength, and hope.
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Subjects
African American students, Biography, Central High School (Little Rock, Ark.), History, School integration, Afro-American students, 1000blackgirlbooks, Little rock (ark.), African americans, biography, Arkansas, biography, High schools, Central High School, Rassenintegration, nyt:race-and-civil-rights=2014-12-07, New York Times bestsellerPeople
Melba BealsPlaces
Arkansas, Little RockTimes
20th centuryShowing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Warriors don't cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
2002, Simon Pulse
in English
- Abridged ed., 1st Simon Pulse ed.
0785752528 9780785752523
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2
Warriors Don't Cry
October 1999, Tandem Library
School & Library Binding
in English
0785752528 9780785752523
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3
Warriors don't cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
1995, Pocket Books
in English
0671899007 9780671899004
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4
Warriors don't cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
1995, Washington Square Press
in English
0671866397 9780671866396
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5
Warriors don't cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
1994, Pocket Books
in English
0671866389 9780671866389
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aaaa
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6
Warriors don't cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
1994, Hampton-Brown
in English
- Abridged ed.
0736231706 9780736231701
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First Sentence
"IN 1957, WHILE MOST TEENAGE GIRLS WERE LISTENING TO BUDDY Holly's "Peggy Sue," watching Elvis gyrate, and collecting crinoline slips, I was escaping the hanging rope of a lynch mob, dodging lighted sticks of dynamite, and washing away burning acid sprayed into my eyes."
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- Created April 1, 2008
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July 25, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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