Book Review: Warriors Don T Cry

The sound of beeping awakens you. With difficulty and trouble, you force yourself out of bed, your brain still not yet conscious. You get your uniform and proceed to head to the bathroom to get ready for school. Minutes pass by quickly and you are walking to school, lost in deep thought. For some time now, you have not yet listened to the world around you. As you gently shift your focus towards the world before you, your ears process the sound of anger at its highest level. You cannot believe what you hear. Vexation fills the air and you are now in an ever so dangerous environment. As you turn the corner, the sounds of the shouting get louder and louder. You can now hear loud running. Your eyeballs move to look around and then you see it
- a thousand white faces are coming at you ever so quickly, a fraction of a second away.
That is a scenario you will most likely never have to live through, all thanks to the Little Rock Nine.
The Arkansas Little Rock Nine were 9 students that were chosen to start to the process of integration as a result of the Brown .v. Board of Education court decision. They were chosen to integrate to Central High, a previously white only school. This, however, did not come without its troubles. Many white people all across the U.S. were raged by the idea of integration and put up a fierce fight against the Little Rock Nine. Reading the book Warriors Don’t Cry, which is by Melba Beals, a member of the Little Rock Nine, I realized that the book was starting to inform my own understanding about injustice through its different perspectives in three ways: Showing me the difference that the Little Rock Nine made, displaying the amount of injustice despite the Brown .v. Board of Education decision, and lastly by opening my eyes to the pain African-Americans had suffered due to being
oppressed. The first way the different perspectives in Warriors Don’t Cry informed my own understanding of injustice was by showing me the difference the Little Rock Nine made on today’s modern world and the many generations to come.
For many decades now, America has accepted integration. The many schools of today are safe environments for children of all colors and racial backgrounds. It is now completely normal to send your kids to a school where other kids come from different backgrounds. This is just one example of how much of an impact the Little Rock Nine made on today’s world. Warriors Don’t Cry also shows the difference between back then and today. On page 46, Melba is called by who she thinks is Vince but is actually a segregationist, who quotes, ”Melba, ……, I know where you live… Twelfth and Cross. We gonna get you tonight… ‘long about midnight,” which clearly shows the difference between the 1950s and today. There is a rare chance of this happening in today's modern world due to the fact that integration is now accepted. This leads me to my second point, the Little Rock Nine have made such an impact that schools such as universities often advertise that their schools have racial diversity. It is now promoted in today's society to live somewhere racially diverse or go to a school that is racially diverse, obviously showing the success of the Little Rock Nine. Going to my third point, the general reaction towards racial diversity has been uplifted tremendously. No longer do
you have parents that will start riots due to the fact that their kids have to go to school with other kids of different race. It is now a problem of the past that ceases to exist. We as humans have corrected our ways. Overall, the difference made by the Little Rock Nine is shown by the schools of today, the promotion of racial diversity, and the general reaction towards racial diversity and the overall acceptance of racial diversity. The second way Warriors Don’t Cry informed my own understanding of injustice was by displaying the amount of racism despite the Brown .v. Board of Education court case. One display of racism was the angry mob of white people that opposed the Little Rock Nine and tried everything to halt the Little Rock Nine from integrating to Central High. There are many instances in Warriors Don’t Cry that show the violence sparked by these mobs, all of which is targeted to nine black teenagers. Bringing me to my second point, there was in fact so much racism that some patrolmen even threw their badges just to join the mob of segregationists. On page 80, a man named Gene Smith quotes, “Some of these patrolmen are throwing down their badges,” which shows that the patrolmen could not be fully trusted. These were men who were called upon to protect the Little Rock Nine. This shows the racism that existed with law enforcement. Lastly, there was such a tremendous amount of racism and inequality that the argument put up by the Brown .v. Board of Education was disregarded by white people all across the country. Most white segregationists completely ignored the facts that were provided by the Brown .v. Board of Education case. America was separate but not equal, and not many segregations took note of that. This is a display of racism because it shows that segregationists were ignoring the points and reasons behind why integration was needed, only so African-Americans don’t get access to the same freedoms that white people have had for hundreds of years. To sum it up, my eyes were opened to the amount of racism despite Brown .v. Board of Education because of the violent mobs that were against the Little Rock Nine, the corruption and racism existing within law enforcement, and the inattention to the points made by the Brown .v. Board of Education case. Lastly, Warriors Don’t Cry opened my eyes to the pain endured by African-Americans due to being oppressed. One example is the physical pain that the Little Rock Nine had to live through. Throughout the book, the Little Rock Nine constantly find that they are in danger. On page 77, it says, “I was running at top speed when someone stuck out a foot and tripped me. I fell face forward, cutting my knee and elbow.” That is just one example of physical violence out of the many others provided by the book. Second, the book shows the mental pain that African-Americans had to persevere through. An example from the book of mental pain is page 160, where Melba says, “I do wish I were dead.” This shows that Melba has endured so much mental pain that she is to the point of committing suicide, Not to forget, this is just the pain of one person. There were many other African-Americans that also lived through either the same amount of pain or even worse amounts of pain. Third, the book often reminded me of the pain endured by African-Americans back in the bad times of slavery. There is a lot of pain involved in being enslaved for many years, not having any freedom. They were granted their freedom when Abraham Lincoln won the Civil War, but it didn’t stop racism or discrimination. Jim Crow laws soon emerged and made black lives as difficult as they were in the past. Overall, the three ways Warriors Don’t Cry opened my eyes to the pain endured by African-Americans was by showing me the physical pain, mental pain, and the pain endured in the past. These are the three ways the different perspectives in Warriors Don’t Cry informed my own understanding of injustice. My understanding of injustice was informed by showing the difference made by the Little Rock Nine, displaying the amount of racism despite Brown .v. Board of Education, and by opening my eyes to the pain endured by African-Americans. As a final thought, I would like for you to take a moment to thank the Little Rock Nine for making the dream of the late, great, Martin Luther King Jr. become reality.