Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir Of The Battle To Integrate Little Rock's Central High Read Free Books and Download eBooks
An innocent teenager. An unexpected hero. In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down. This is her remarkable story.
Lexile Measure: 1000L (What's this?)
Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse; Reissue edition (July 24, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416948821
ISBN-13: 978-1416948827
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.7 x 7 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (392 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #4,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Books > Teens > Biographies > Cultural Heritage #2 in Books > Teens > Social Issues > Prejudice #2 in Books > Teens > Biographies > Historical
Age Range: 12 and up
Grade Level: 7 and up
It is quite disappointing to me that says it NOWHERE on the product page, nor does it say so on the cover of the book, but this is an abridged version. The only mention of its abridgement occurs on the title page. Nearly a hundred pages have been cut out of this version. I purchased this book for a class and missed a lot of the references that were given in discussion.It's a good read, but go for the full version.
Agree with prior reviewer with disappointment that did not specify anywhere that this copy is abridged. The only way to tell is to notice the number of pages. I ordered this under time pressure for a school project only to find out on day one of the class discussion that I was missing all sorts of bits that are only in the full version. I am a very loyal consumer, and will continue to be so, but am surprised that they can't find a way to easily flag an abridged book.
This work is perfectly sequenced and thoroughly documented, mainly because the author kept a detailed diary during this period. Years later, her diary, plus archived news reports and a great writing style combined to produce this searing expose. It is the story of the 1957-1958 integration attempt at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, as seen through the eyes of a participant, one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Patttilo Beals.In WARRIORS DON'T CRY, it's heartwrenching to read of the actual daily brutality and torture of kicks, slaps , spitting, sprays and verbal abuse that these children suffered. The events that occurred at this timne made an unerasable mark of violent racist psyche on the multi-colored design that composes America's people. This book is also emotional because it is easy to see that those in power could have made the transition to integration a much smoother and less painful step into an inevitably better social structure.This was a hard read. I had to put it down several times because the visualization was just too intense, the bigotry and viciousness too unadulterated. Yet, I think it's something every American needs to read so that the actions contained in this book will never be repeated.
THIS IS AN ABRIDGED VERSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOWHERE on the item description does it tell that this is such, but if you need the whole story, say for a school project, like I did, do not, I repeat, DO NOT order this version!!! I got it for my son's summer reading assignment and not until his first week of class did he find out that it was the abridged version of the book!!! He failed EVERY test on it because there was a LOT of information he didn't get from this. If you need the whole memoir, get the version with an artist's depiction of Ms. Beals when she was fifteen in front of a brick wall with the shadows of the 101st Airborne on the bottom half of the cover. It should be an option on the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section. DO NOT GET THIS VERSION IF YOU KNOW YOU NEED THE FULL, UNABRIDGED VERSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Otherwise, it is a very good abridgment. Read it to your heart's content, but know that there are about a hundred pages from the full memoir that are missing.
Warriors Don't Cry is the moving story of the nine Black teenagers who daredto integrate Central High School. The story is told by one of theteenagers, Melba Pattillo.Ms. Pattillo begins the story in 1954 when the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates in Brown v. the Board of Education held that separate but equalschools were inherently unequal and ordered school districts to desegregatewith all deliberate speed. She recalls that white people in Little Rockwere outraged and while walking home on the date the decision was handeddown an angry white man attempted to rape a 12 year old Melba. Such achilling response to the order to integrate is an eerie prelude to theordeal Melba and the eight others endured in their effort to integrateCentral High School.Following Brown the Little Rock School District came up with a plan tointegrate which limited integration to Central High School and delayed theprocess of integration until September 1957. Arkansas Governor Faubus cameout against any type of integration and when it came time for Melba and theothers to integrate Central in September 1957, Governor Faubus sent out theArkansas National Guard and the Arkansas State Troopers to block thestudents from entering. President Eisenhower in turn sent the United StatesNational Guard to Central High School to enforce the order of the Court.This crisis of federalism was another interesting story line in the bookchocked full with drama.Once inside the school with the assistance of the federal National Guard,the treatment the Black students received was disgusting, unbelievable andheartbreaking. I literally burst out crying at on several occasions whilereading what some people inflicted upon others just because of the color oftheir skin. The students were stabbed, pushed down stairs, slapped,punched, called every kind of vile name imaginable, and sprayed with urine,acid and ink to name just a few of the indignities, while most if not alladministrators and teachers did nothing to halt the depraved behavior of thestudents. The students were also subject to distain from people in theirown community for attempting to integrate because of the repercussions feltby all members of the Black community. Jobs were lost, and people werebeaten and shot just because they were Black and the white people in LittleRock did not want integration.The courage of these nine students is inspiring and their faith neverwavered. They were literally warriors on the battlefield; fighting fortheir lives and their education inside the walls of Central High School.This is a must read for everyone. Learning or relearning this history willgive you a greater appreciation of the importance of education, give you agreater desire to seek your own education and/or encourage your children totake advantage of every available educational opportunity.
This is an excellent book about the Little Rock 9 told by one of the students.The details are excellent and it gives a REAL account of the torture the students went through, and the depths to which people can sink and how terribly they treat each other.I was glad to see an account of one of the MAJOR events in the American Civil Rights struggle which did not play down what happened, nor sugar coat it. People need to know what happened, and what it was like for the participants. This book will tell them.I highly recommend this book.
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