Warriors Don't Cry

I've been reading Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals. The book is about the integration of Little Rock Central High in Little Rock Arkansas.

In 1954, The Supreme Court voted on the Brown Vs. Board of Education and deemed that schools had to integrate, to have both white and black students. 

At the start of the book, Melba Pattillo Beals secretly signs a paper saying that she will be part of a group that will integrate Central High. Through the summer, she doesn't tell her parents or any of her family. Just before school starts, she informs her family that she will be part of the group. Shocked as they are, they still support her decision, after she convinces them.

On the first day of school, as Melba and several others attempt to enter the school. They find that the governor of Arkansas had sent in National Guard troops to block the students from entering. Melba and her mother run back to their car, being chased by a mob of people that want to hang them. Melba and the other students are instructed to stay home for the next few days.

A few days later, Melba and the integration group make it into the school. President Eisenhower had told Governor Faubus to withdraw the troops and allow the children to enter. While the children were in the school, the same mob that had pursued Melba and her mother attempted to break into the school.

Just before noon, troops pulled Melba and the rest of the group out of their classes. They load them into cars, instructing them to keep their heads down and their doors locked. They drive all of the children home, as they narrowly escape the mob that did manage to get into the school, and was ransacking the place looking for the black students.

It was later found out that the mob outside the school had bribed the soldiers to let them pass. 

A few days after that, the army arrives to pick Melba up to take her to school. She successfully enters, and the army does a better job of keeping the crowd under control. That is what I have read to.

I was shocked after reading this book.  I had no idea that feelings for segregation were that intense. All the while Melba sat in the classroom, students shouted names like "nigger" at her, while only one teacher tried to stop them.

Overall, I feel like the whole plan for the integration of Central High was very poorly planned. It took them three tries to get it right, which is three tries too many.