The Little Rock Nine

In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the

In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down.

[The students] were subjects of unspeakable hatred. White students yelled insults in the halls and during class. They beat up the black students, particularly the boys. They walked on the heels of the black until they bled. They destroyed the black student’s lockers and threw flaming paper wads at them in the bathrooms. They threw lighted sticks of dynamite at Melba Pattillo Beals, stabbed her, and sprayed acid in her eyes. The acid was so strong that had her

Ruby Bridges, the first African American to go to a white school, she was as brave as a person going into the army. There were death threats to Ruby’s family and in the army you fight and have a chance to die. When Ruby went to this white school federal marshals had to guard her because the riots were so bad. After analyzing several online biographies, Ruby was very brave and wanted to change the way the world looks at race, and she has changed the way the world looks at race.

For my Argumentative Essay “Modern Day Re-Segregation in Today’s Schools”, I will be addressing Professor Kelly Bradford and my fellow students of Ivy Tech online English Composition 111-54H. As I chose Martin Luther King’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” as my core reading topic, I have gained an interest in not only the fight for civil rights that Mr. King lead in the 1950’s but have gotten interested in how there is still a large gap in equality in education due to the current situation of not only educational segregation but social and economic segregation. Through my research I have discovered that not only segregation in the schools is on the rise, but that socioeconomic segregation exists and is fueling the decrease in academic success by impoverished students. Through my writing I want to demonstrate that the socioeconomic isolation and segregation not only affects those that are directly bound by it, but that it affects every American in some form or other. I am submitting my writing as a formal academic manuscript.

Rosa Parks, a very important and influential black woman in history. When a student is learning about Blacks fighting for equal rights, it is almost certain that the name “Rosa Parks” will be mentioned. The story that students are taught is that she was a quiet woman who had had enough and refused to give up her seat on the bus, which is not entirely true. Yes, Ms. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man because she was sick and tired of being treated in such a horrible way, but she was not as quiet as everyone was taught to believe. Some might even say that history got the great Rosa Parks story wrong. An author by the name of Jeanne Theoharis definitely agrees to that. She agrees strongly that she wrote an article titled “How History Got the Rosa Parks Story Wrong”.

4) Facts: Since the verdict made by the Supreme Court on the Brown v. Board of Education case, little enactment was made in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina’s school structure. There are 107 schools altogether, in which the student population is 84000. Within the structure, there are 21 schools in which 14000 African Americans attend that are 99% of their race only. The rest of the African American students, about 10000 students, attend integrated school. In this case, the plaintiff, Swann, had come forth to bring the board of education to the court. It all started when Dr. Darius Swann, professor at Johnson C. Smith University, wanted to enroll his child to an almost all white school closer to his home, which he was rejected.

For example, Melba Patillo was kicked, pounded, and even had acid thrown in her face. There was also an occurrence when white students burned an African American effigy in an empty lot across the school. Gloria Ray was pushed down a staircase and the Little Rock Nine were not allowed to take part in extracurricular activities. Minnijean Brown got expelled in February 1958 for getting even with the attackers. The students were not the only ones who faced harassment. When Ray’s mother refused to take her daughter out of the school, she was fired from her job with the State of Arkansas (3, pages 4-5). The only senior of the Little Rock Nine, Ernest Green, was the first African American graduate at Central High School (1, page

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school.

Little Rock Nine was known for being nine African American students who went to Little Rock’s all-white Central High School in the fall of 1957. They were sent there because of their “academic excellence and willingness to become racial pioneers.” says The Struggle for Freedom: A History of African Americans. The students were told that the National Guardsmen was going to be there that morning but on September 4th, they soon found out that the National Guardsmen was not there to protect the nine of them from angry white citizens, but to block them from getting into the school. On September 4th they were not successful in enter the school But the nine of them were determined and were not want to give up. So the following day, Daisy Bates, head of the NAACP’s local branch, arranged for them to meet to walk to the school together. One of the students named Elizabeth Eckford, did not have a phone in her home so she did not receive the memo. While she walked to school alone angry crowd of whites surrounded her, when she arrived to the school all alone. She was scared and confused all at once, so she sat tensed up on a bench. Luckily a white woman intervened and walked Elizabeth to safety. The other eight students made it to the school together and was turned around again

Ruby Bridge was the first African American child to go to an all-white school. Ruby at the time was only six years old and was the first to attend William Frantz elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. Everyday Ruby was escorted to school because of the mob that was standing around William Frantz. Everyday Ruby was scared because white people would stand around the school and call her a “Nigger” or they would put a black baby doll in a coffin and yell this is you people even threatened to poison her the lady that said that would poison her was the lady from the grocery store. Barbara Henry was the only teacher willing to teach Ruby because all the other teachers did not want a black student in there class with all the other white kids because they thought that she would cause trouble between all the students. Ruby practically had her own tutor because of the teachers, at the end of the year Ruby had to take another test to

In the case of Robert Russa High School, Black residents lobbied the Prince Edward County school district to erect a separate African-American high school. Their request was met with tepid support from the local school board. However, “under pressure from local black professional men, during the 1920s the Prince Edward County School Board reluctantly added high school grades to the all-black Mary E. Branch Elementary School. The blame for such slow and inadequate effort was always placed on the lack of funds. Although it was true that financing problems existed, all-white schools still tended to fare better.” (VA GOV). The façade of “separate but equal” continued to shape political rhetoric for the Prince Edward County School Board. However, Robert Russa High School’s creation and establishment amid white institutional pushback demonstrated the power of “Black persistence” in Farmville,

First, six year old Ruby is ostracized, or rejected, by angry white people, including teachers and administrators. Walking into the schools, the staff members were all lined up and gave mean looks toward Miss.Bridges. One teacher exclaimed that “we don’t have little Negroes in Franz Elementary,” but Ruby was brave and

Melba Beals was one of the first black students to integrate into a full white school in Arkansas. Before she could go to the new school, the Governor of Arkansas, commanded a National Guard to block the path to the white school, however president Eisenhower wanted these blacks to integrate, so he arranged some guards to take the nine, black students into the school. Beals had to face bountiful obstacles such as a National Guard, the Arkansas governor, angry segregationist mobs, rejection from white schools, and being racially insulted. She said that on the way to her school, she took “the path the Arkansas National Guard has blocked us(nine black students) from days before. . . and crossed the threshold into that place where angry segregationist

RUBY BRIDGES at the age of 6 was the first black person/ female to attend an all-white school. It came to the point to where people and her wrote a book and wanted to be explained how was that possible. Crazy thing is she was escorted every morning to school by a least 3 white male men.