Warriors Don’t Cry
The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High
Overview
Background On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. the Board of Education that segregated
schools were “inherently unequal.”
Three years later, nine African American students integrated all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
They were known all over the country as the “Little Rock Nine.”
The integration experiment quickly gained worldwide attention when Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus resisted the
Supreme Court ruling to integrate. He ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School to
keep the nine students from entering. In response, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division to
Little Rock to uphold the Supreme Court’s decision.
Book Summary One of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals began writing Warriors Don’t Cry shortly after
her experiences at Central High School in 1958, but the book was not released until 1994. Beals includes excerpts
from her girlhood diary, as well as newspaper clippings saved by her family. This true story follows Beals from her
birth to her return to Central High as an adult.
About the Author
Melba Pattillo Beals was born in 1941 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and grew up during the beginning of the civil rights
movement. Beals was twelve at the time of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka. She was fifteen when
integration began in 1957.
After the school year ended, Governor Faubus closed the Little Rock schools. Because of numerous death threats,
the NAACP arranged for Beals to complete high school in California, where she eventually graduated from
Montgomery High School.
Inspired by the journalists she met during the integration, Beals went on to graduate with a degree in journalism
from San Francisco State University. She later received a graduate degree in broadcast journalism and film from
Columbia University. She worked as a reporter for NBC-TV and has written books on public relations and marketing.
Getting Started
Read the What If? section below and answer the questions that follow.
What If?
Your school’s all-male football team is the state’s championship team. A talented female
athlete tries out and then is asked to join the team. Parents call to complain. They claim she
will ruin the team. The team refuses to play if she is allowed to join. The coach tells the female
athlete he is sorry, but allowing her to play will create too many problems.
The girls in the school find out that the coach will not let a girl play on the team. Now the girls
are upset. A group of girls alert the media about what has happened. Reporters print the story
in all the newspapers. Soon, it seems like everyone in the town is arguing about this issue.
Make notes about how this would affect you
• Were the girls right to contact the media?
• How could the media coverage affect their daily lives?
• What should the media’s role be in this situation?
Introduction
Read the Introduction in Warriors Don’t Cry. The Introduction will help you understand key concepts
in the book. Knowing them will help you discuss and write about the book.
After you read the Introduction, answer these questions to check your understanding.
1. What was living in the United States like for African Americans during the 1950s?
2. What effect did Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., have on the civil rights movement?
3. Why did the author write Warriors Don’t Cry?
Chapters 1–4
1. Personal Response Melba Pattillo Beals wrote that some people called her a hero for participating
in the integration of Central High School. Do you agree that Melba is a hero? Why or why not?
2. Reasoning What were Melba’s reasons for volunteering to integrate Central High School?
3. Evaluating Sources Is the author’s account of what happened during the battle for school
integration accurate and credible? How do you know?
4. Generate Questions Write a question about this section for someone else reading this book.
Exchange questions with them. Who did you exchange with? Do you agree with their answer?
Before You Move On . . .
5. What was Melba’s first experience with segregation? How did it make her feel?
6. Melba’s family went to Mr. Waylan’s store to shop. What happened next?
7. What caused the stranger to attack Melba?
8. What can you conclude about Melba’s decision to attend a white school?
9. Compare the governor’s actions and his speech. What did he think about integration?
10. How does the author tell her story?
11. How did Melba and her mother get away fromthe angry mob?
12. Reread page 63. What did Grandma India mean when she said, “God’s warriors don’t cry”?
Chapters 5 –7
13. Personal Response Melba felt freedom had been taken from her. She wrote in her diary that
freedom was not integration. Freedom was being able to go to the wrestling matches. What is
freedom to you?
14. Conclusions Why didn’t Governor Faubus go to the court hearing, even though he had been
ordered to appear? Use the word protest in your response.
15. Fact and Opinion After her first day at Central High, Melba said that integration could be possible
if there was no interference from outside forces. Was this a fact or an opinion? Explain.
16. Generate Questions Write a question about this section for someone else reading this book.
Exchange questions with them. Do you agree with their answer?
Before You Move On . . .
17. Why did Melba feel that everything was being taken from her?
18. How did the mood of the story change when the reporters questioned Melba?
19. What was the argument the governor’s attorneys used in court?
20. How did the Justice Department argue for integration?
21. RWhat did the man mean when he told Melba, “you wanted integration . . . you got integration”?
22. Look at the pictures in this chapter. How do they help you to understand integration?
Chapters 8 –10
23. Personal Response Melba was grateful to have Danny’s protection. He made her feel “specially
cared about.” Describe a time when you felt grateful for someone. How did they make you feel?
24. Cause and Effect Why did the black students and the white students who supported integration
have to act as if the hatred did not affect them? Use the word hatred in your response.
25. Author’s Point of View Melba wrote that if reporters had not been covering the story of the
integration, the black students might have been hanged. What did she mean? Why did she feel
that way?
26. Generate Questions Write a question about this section for someone else reading this book.
Exchange questions with them. Do you agree with their answer?
Before You Move On . . .
27. What did the president do to protect the students?
28. The reporter asked Melba if she wished she were white. Why was this ironic?
29. Why didn’t Melba want reporters to know about her attacks?
30. Give 2 examples that show that the attacks became more dangerous.
Chapters 11–13
31. Personal Response A public meeting was held, at which students could safely speak their minds
about the integration. If you had a chance to speak at the meeting, what would you say?
32. Irony Melba always thought of her sixteenth birthday as the beginning of freedom. What about
Melba’s life made this ironic? Use the word integrate in your response.
33. Inference At Thanksgiving, Melba said they were eating an integrated turkey when asked if she
wanted white meat or dark meat. Why did Mother Lois say she would live to regret that statement?
34. Generate Questions Write a question about this section for someone else reading this book.
Exchange questions with them. Do you agree with their answer?
Before You Move On . . .
35. Compare why students of both races thought African Americans wanted to attend Central.
36. What caused Melba to think that the attitudes of white students were starting to change?
37. How did Melba’s friends treat her on her sixteenth birthday? Why?
38. Why was Little Rock as a top story in December, 1957, ironic to Melba?
Chapters 14 –16
39. Personal Response Melba was shocked when she read past diary entries and saw how much
she had changed. Tell about a time that changed you.
40. Paraphrase On page 194, Grandma India told Melba that “dignity is a state of mind, just like
freedom.” What did she mean by this? Do you agree or disagree? Use the word dignity in your
response.
41. Inference Why were Grandma India and Mother Lois afraid when Melba drove Link’s car home?
Why did they cover the car to hide it from the police?
42. Generate Questions Write a question about this section for someone else reading this book.
Exchange questions with them. Do you agree with their answer?
Before You Move On . . .
43. Find 2 entries from Melba’s diary that support the main idea: Melba felt she could not endure
more attacks.
44. Andy and his friends chased Melba. How did she get away?
45. How did Link help Melba? What did he help her to understand?
46. What happened when Melba reacted differently to the harassment?
Chapters 17–18 and Epilogue
47. Personal Response The black community resented the black students’ role in the integration.
How would this have made you feel if you were one of the black students?
48. Author’s Point of View The author wrote, “The effort to separate ourselves . . . is as costly to the
separator as to those who would be separated.” What did she mean? Use the word segregated in
your response.
49. Theme Mother Lois thought she could win back her teaching position if the story was reported in
the white newspapers. What does this say about the media’s influence?
Before You Move On . . .
50. What did Link’s parents assume about Nana Healy?
51. Why did Mother Lois lose her teaching job?
52. Little Rock closed all of the high schools. What happened to Melba next?