Müller Valentin CULTURAL STUDIES USA 22.05.14 When I read Melba Pattillo Beals’s story I felt very bad. I can’t believe that some schools refused to present a reasonable plan for integration; moreover, I can’t believe that some had to be forced to act. Although President Dwight Eisenhower sent in troops of the 101st Airborne and later the Arkansas National Guards, whose purpose was to protect the teenagers, they still got abused and beaten. I really admire Melba’s will to preserve, and I admire her courage to speak up to the white principal although her mother and father feared doing so. If there hadn’t been bodyguards, I guess she would have been killed. I don’t understand people who always say,” Everything was better in the old days.”; nothing was better.