Like many teachers, I am always interested in learning more about historical events relating to the education of America’s disenfranchised students. Black History Month is a great opportunity to zero in on the education of our African American students. To learn more about this topic, there are many excellent books you can add to your reading list. Here’s a well-told first-person account about struggles of African American students in Arkansas at the onset of the Civil Rights Movement. The book is Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of nine heroic African American students known as famous Little Rock Nine.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education which declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Three years later, the schools of Little Rock, Arkansas, were still segregated. A plan for gradual integration generated an intensely hostile response from Little Rock’s staunch segregationists. Nevertheless, nine courageous African American students were selected to challenge the status quo and integrate the city’s Central High School. Clinging stubbornly to Jim Crow tradition, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block the entrance of the nine black students into the school, and, in response, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and charged the troops with protecting the lives of the nine and enforcing the Supreme Court’s ruling. Every school day that year, the Little Rock Nine braved angry mobs spewing hostilities, racial epithets, and threats to their lives simply for seeking the right to enter their school.
This book, Warriors Don’t Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High, tells the story of Melba Pattilllo Beals, one of those valiant nine students. When you read this compelling account, you wonder how any kid could have that much fortitude. This book is a great read for teachers, students, and history buffs. You can acquire a copy of Warriors Don’t Cry from amazon.
