Plot SummaryWarriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals is an inspiring true story about hope, courage, and change in the Southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas. The characters in this story begin by living a life of inequality and injustice. Their brave spirits and souls force them to fight for their beliefs. In the beginning of the book, Melba, the main character and author, signs up to integrate to Central High School-- an all white school. She and eight other students risk their lives on September 25, 1957. When they arrive at school, a huge mob of angry white people is seen pushing them, calling them names, and chanting, "Two, four, six, eight, we ain't gonna integrate!" That night, Melba receives many phone calls from people threatening to bomb her house. Even though the majority of the town is against integration, the Nine fight hard for their freedom. After they attend meetings and news reporters harass them with questions, they return to the school under the protection of the Screaming Eagles 101st Airborne. Each student has a private guard who walks with them in the halls. Even though the guards can not go into the bathrooms, classrooms, or lunch rooms, they serve as much-needed protection. During the integration process, Melba is not usually allowed to attend social events or go out on dates with her boyfriend. Even at her own sixteenth birthday party no one except for her boyfriend, Vince, comes to celebrate. At the end of the book, after she has integrated for one full year, Melba writes about how she comes back to Central High School thirty years later. When she arrives, she is greeted by the student body president who is a black teenager. This is evidence that things can change so much because of someone's brave spirit.
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