Name ______________________________________________________________
Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals
Chapter 2, page 6
Black folks aren’t born expecting segregation, prepared from day one to follow its confining rules.
Nobody presents you with a handbook when you’re teething and says, “Here’s how you must behave
as a second-class citizen.” Instead, the humiliating expectations and traditions of segregation creep
over you, slowly stealing a teaspoonful of your self-esteem each day. (p. 6)
1. What do you notice in Melba Pattillo Beals’ words?
2. What do her words remind you of?
3. What questions would you ask Melba Beals after reading these words?
4. How does Melba learn those expectations and traditions?
Chapter 3, page 22
1. What happened on May 17, 1954?
2. In the first paragraph of this chapter Melba states, “I learned lessons on that day that I will remember for the rest
of my life.” After reading the accounts of that day, list the lessons you think she learned.
3. Why did Melba consider Cincinnati the “promised land”?
4. How did Melba’s family feel about her going to Central High School?
5. How did Melba feel about going to Central High School?
6. If you were in Melba’s position, would you have chosen to be one of the first to integrate Central High School?
Why or why not?
Chapter 4, page 33
1. Superintendent Virgil Blossom and the other school officials chose Melba and the other eight African American
students to desegregate Central High form dozens of applicants. What did these students have in common? What
qualities may have prompted school officials to decide on these particular students?
2. On September 3, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus told the people of Arkansas: “I must state here in all sincerity,
that it is my opinion, yes, even a conviction, that it will not be possible to restore or to maintain order and protect the
lives and property of the citizens if forcible integration is carried out tomorrow in the schools of this community.”
(page 38) What effect do you think his words will have on black and white citizens of Little Rock? On people in
surrounding communities? What does his statement suggest about the way he defines his role as governor?
3. Why does Melba believe she must integrate Little Rock?
Chapter 5, page 46
1. Describe Melba’s attempt to go to school on Wednesday, September 4, 1957.
2. How do you believe Melba and her mother felt that day?
Chapter 6, page 52
1. Melba’s grandmother likens Melba to a “warrior on the battlefield for your Lord.” What qualities do warriors
have?
2. Which of those qualities do you think Melba and the other eight students will need to make it through the school
year?
3. Do you agree with the advice Melba’s grandmother gives her about not crying? When is crying a sign of
weakness? A sign of strength?
4. Do you think all this danger and fear that Melba is experiencing is worth it to go to Central High School?
Why/why not?
Chapter 8, page 76
1. On page 83 Melba describes an ad created by a white man from a small town in Arkansas. What is the
message of his ad? At whom is it directed? How do you explain Melba’s response to it? How do you think others
in the community may have responded?
2. What makes Thurgood Marshall different form the other adults Melba knows?
3. Reread pages 88-89. How did the mood of the story change when the reporters questioned Melba?
4. What job does it occur to Melba she might like to do some day? Why does she think she might want to do that
job?
5. In this section of the book, Melba reflects on the meaning of the word freedom. How are her experiences at
Central High altering or deepening her understanding of the term?
6. What does the word freedom mean to you? What experiences have shaped your understanding of the word?
Chapter 9, page 92
1. Why do the lawyers for the state of Arkansas just walk out of the courtroom without putting up a fight?
2. What role does the media seem to play in the crisis? How important is that role?
3. What do you think Melba’s first day of classes at Central High will be like?
Chapter 10, page106
1. Describe Melba’s first day at Central.
2. Does it surprise you that people can be so hateful? Why or why not?
3. Would you quit Central High if you were Melba? Why or why not?
4. React to the comment from the principal’s office: “We may have to let the mob have one of the kids, so’s we
can distract them long enough to get the others out.” p. 115
5. Reread page 110. What did the man mean when he told Melba, “you wanted integration…you got integration”?
Chapter 11, page 116
1. What did the mob do even after the students left?
2. How does Melba end up writing a newspaper article?
3. What was President Eisenhower’s warning?
4. How do the adults at Central High—the principal, vice principal, teachers—respond to the arrival of the African
American students?
5. What effect do their responses have on Melba and the other African American students?
6. What effect do you think they have on white students at Central High?
Chapter 12, page 126
1. Explain what Melba’s remarks about feeling both proud and sad while being escorted into the school by federal
troops mean.
Chapter 13, page 134
1. Danny, and the rest of the 101st Division , do make life safer for Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine, but
their role is limited in some ways. What can the soldiers do? What can’t the soldiers do?
2. Melba does experience moments of kindness at times during the day. What are some examples of this
kindness? According to a white student, why isn’t there more kindness?
3. What was Melba’s reaction to the reporter’s rude question, “Do you wish that you were white?” Why was this
ironic?
4. Why did Melba feel that she owed the reporters a favor?
Chapter 14, page 146
1. Where in this chapter do we continue to see the motif of the warrior developed?
Chapter 15, page 155
1. What were Melba’s feelings toward her experience at Central at this point?
Chapter 16, page 162
1. What is ironic about the Arkansas National Guard protecting Melba and the other students?
2. What kind of demonstration did the white students at Central hold?
3. Melba said in this chapter that she “felt something inside her change” after standing up to the adults at school.
She knew that she would always be different after that—that she could do something she never thought she could.
When have you had something like that happen to you (a time that changed you in any way—and you could feel it
at that moment)?
4. What do you think makes some people racist and some people not?
Chapter 17, page 176
1. Was the roundtable discussion successful? Why/why not?
Chapter 18, page 188
1. What was Melba’s “turkey” comment? How was it received?
Chapter 20, page 211
1. How was Melba’s “sweet sixteen” birthday anything but sweet?
2. How does Melba’s enrollment at Central High School affect her relationship with her old friends? Why do you
think they are not longer willing to socialize with her?
3. What did Minnijean do when she was trapped? Why couldn’t Melba help her? What were the consequences?
4. How do you explain Minnijean’s response to the boys who taunt her? Is it an act of defiance or desperation? A
victory or defeat? What is the short-term effect of her action? What do you think the long-term effect will be? Why
do you think the school officials respond as they do?
Chapter 21, page 221
1. Why does Melba think it’s strange that the Little Rock story is second on the AP’s best list?
2. How would you answer her question, “Is it that nobody cares, or nobody know what to do?”
Chapter 22, page 231
1. What had Melba written in her diary that surprised her?
2. How did India once again show her strength in character?
3. What happened to Minniejean at the end of the chapter?
4. Describe a time when you had to work hard not to lose your temper.
Chapter 23, page 240
1. How does Melba’s grandmother suggest that Melba disarm her attackers? How effective is that strategy?
2. On page 246 there are three of Melba’s diary entries. At the end of the third one, she says that “Melba went
away to hide.” Explain what she means by this.
3. Do you think you would handle this experience in the same way? Explain your answer.
4. How did Link possibly save Melba’s life? Why was Melba hesitant to let him help?
Chapter 24, page 251
1. Should Melba have trusted Link? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think Link secretly helps Melba elude her attackers?
Chapter 25, page 262
1. What risks is Link taking in offering Melba his friendship? What risks is Melba taking in becoming friends with
Link?
2. Why are Melba’s mother and grandmother suspicious of Link’s motives in befriending Melba?
3. Why does Link want Melba to tell the press that the situation at Central High School is improving? What does
he hope the results of such a statement will be? How does she respond?
4. Consider earlier incidents in the book when Melba has to keep a secret because of prejudice and discrimination.
What does Melba’s secret friendship with Link have in common with those incidents? What differences seem most
striking?
5. How was Melba becoming stronger and gaining more control over her situation at this point in the book?
Chapter 26, page 277
1. Describe Link’s relationship with his former Nanny and what effect this had on his views.
Chapter 27, page 286
1. How did Melba’s mother get her job back? Why did she lose it in the first place?
2. How has Andy stepped up his harassment of Melba? What does her “bodyguard” do about it?
Chapter 28, page 299
1. What does Ernest Green’s graduation from Central High School mean to African Americans in Little Rock? Why
is it a matter of such concern to segregationists?
2. The people who attend the graduation applaud other graduates but are silent when Ernest receives his diploma.
How do you explain their silence?
3. Melba writes that “the newspapers said Ernie’s diploma cost the taxpayers half a million dollars. Of course, we
knew it cost all of us much more.” What does she mean by that statement?
4. How did Link and Melba’s relationship end?
5. What drastic step did Governor Faubus take to be sure that black students did not attend Central the next year?
6. Where did Melba go to finish her high school years?
7. How did Melba meet her husband? Why did they split up? Who did he represent to Melba?
8. What “one lesson” did her years at Central teach Melba?
9. Respond to this lesson she learned. Do you agree? Why or why not?
10. Why do you think Melba wrote this book?
Who’s Who in Warriors Don’t Cry

Melba’s family
o
Grandma India: lives with them; very close to Melba; has traveled; loves literature and the Bible
o
Mother (Lois)/Mama Lois: teaches 7th grade English, one of first black people to attend University
of Arkansas—earned her master degree
o
Father (Howell/Will): worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad; refused to finish classes to
graduate from college like Lois wanted—they divorced when Melba was seven
o

Conrad (brother): younger than Melba
Other eight students making up the “Little Rock Nine”
o
Ernest Green: senior; member of Melba’s church
o
Terrence Roberts: junior; friend of Melba’s since 1st grade; funny; intelligent
o
Jefferson Thomas: sophomore; quiet; soft-spoken; athlete; tops in his class
o
Elizabeth Eckford: junior; petite; very quiet; very serious in her studies
o
Thelma Mothershed: junior; friend of Melba’s; small with very pale complexion; thick-lensed
glasses; weak heart
o
Minnijean Brown: junior; one of Melba’s best friends; lived a block away from Melba; wanted to
sing
o
Carlotta Walls: sophomore; athlete; energetic; always in a good mood
o
Gloria Ray: junior; member of Melba’s church; very particular about appearance and studies

Daisy Bates: Arkansas state president of the NAACP

Thurgood Marshall: lawyer who argued on behalf of Linda Brown in Brown v. the Board of Education;
chief council for the NAACP; supports the Little Rock Nine

Orval Faubus: Governor of Arkansas in 1957; gives the order to the Arkansas National Guard to keep out
the Little Rock Nine

Virgil Blossom: Superintendent of Little Rock’s schools; he supports the plan for integration, but he does
little to enforce it or protect the students

Ronald Davies: federal judge from Nebraska who order Governor Faubus to allow integration to continue

Dwight D. Eisenhower: President of the United States in 1957; he send the 101st Airborne Division to
escort the Little Rock Nine when Faubus sends in the National Guard to keep them out

Elizabeth Huckaby: vice principal of Central High School; can’t protect the students, but does her best to
control some of their attackers

Jess Matthews: principal of Central High School