Melba Beals’ novel, Warriors Don’t Cry, has taught me so much about how serious the problem of integration actually was when it was first being enforced in Little Rock. We’ve all heard about the facts surrounding the Little Rock fiasco, but these facts typically provide information that describes it as a strictly historical event. This novel, on the other hand, provides great insight into the immense difficulty of the situation by providing the personal account of an actual first-hand participant in the significant event.
What struck me most about Melba’s story is the constant courage, faithfulness, and hopefulness that she and her family so vividly embody. Even in the midst of total chaos and danger, as angry mobs were chasing her with ropes and weapons, Melba was able to maintain a sense of hope by remembering her grandmother’s words that “God is always with you, even when things seem awful” (Beals 51). They had such faith in God that they fully trusted Him to protect them and to help integration finally be achieved in Little Rock.
Reading about Melba’s experience gives me so much admiration for her and the others who were brave enough to endure this hardship to get to the positive end result of integration and equality. It seems unreal to me that a 15-year-old girl would have to handle the amount of stress, fear, and responsibility that Melba did–and it wasn’t really that long ago. She had a profound amount of maturity for her young age, and she didn’t let all of the awful circumstances around her turn her into a hateful, bitter person. In fact, she even wanted to meet Governor Faubus to help her “get over [her] dislike for him” (Beals 96), which is something I definitely would not be able to do or even feel…I would want to meet him so I could tell him off or something, but I would not be mature enough to want to get over my dislike for him, so I admire Melba for her maturity and positive attitude toward the governor, who in my opinion definitely did not deserve such courtesy.
