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A review by justabean_reads
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Holy cow, this was a wild, wild ride. I knew the outlines going in: nine black high schoolers went to a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the federal government had to send the 101st Airborne in to protect them. By which one can assume it wasn't a fun time for anyone.
It was not a fun time, and Beals is an absolutely gripping writer. She kept a diary at the time, as well as saving newspaper clippings and other contemporary accounts, then took thirty years to actually write an account of what happens. Even with the distance of that many decades, the story is absolutely harrowing. People use the word "warrior" very lightly these days, but I kept thinking that these teens were essentially child soldiers, given the relentless abuse they got from both their peers and adults. I think one of the most difficult parts to read was how unsupported by her Black peers Beals felt, and how utterly lonely she was for so much of the time. Being fifteen sucks enough as it is, without all that.
Beals admits that many of the conversations are reconstructions, and I think if she ever got tired of the journalism gig, she'd do pretty well as a fiction writer. Her grandmother especially is a wonderful presence in the story, supportive in her own slightly tough love way, and the absolute rock of Beals' world. We don't get as clear a view of other family members, but the sense of place and the voices are all vivid and painfully real. I appreciated how Beals acknowledged the pressure a lot of people were under, but didn't let them off the hook for their shitty behaviour. Though she feels what she and the others did was worth it, Beals also expresses disappointment that school segregation is still an issue.
(The rabble rousing state governor reminded me of certain more recent political figures who rule though the "Will someone not rid me of this troublesome priest," concept.)
Beals doesn't make any of this pretty. There are a lot of racial slurs and violence towards children in this book. There is some sexual violence, including an attempted rape of a child, but I suspect Beals very much played that aspect down.
I'm curious what her next book is like/about.
It was not a fun time, and Beals is an absolutely gripping writer. She kept a diary at the time, as well as saving newspaper clippings and other contemporary accounts, then took thirty years to actually write an account of what happens. Even with the distance of that many decades, the story is absolutely harrowing. People use the word "warrior" very lightly these days, but I kept thinking that these teens were essentially child soldiers, given the relentless abuse they got from both their peers and adults. I think one of the most difficult parts to read was how unsupported by her Black peers Beals felt, and how utterly lonely she was for so much of the time. Being fifteen sucks enough as it is, without all that.
Beals admits that many of the conversations are reconstructions, and I think if she ever got tired of the journalism gig, she'd do pretty well as a fiction writer. Her grandmother especially is a wonderful presence in the story, supportive in her own slightly tough love way, and the absolute rock of Beals' world. We don't get as clear a view of other family members, but the sense of place and the voices are all vivid and painfully real. I appreciated how Beals acknowledged the pressure a lot of people were under, but didn't let them off the hook for their shitty behaviour. Though she feels what she and the others did was worth it, Beals also expresses disappointment that school segregation is still an issue.
(The rabble rousing state governor reminded me of certain more recent political figures who rule though the "Will someone not rid me of this troublesome priest," concept.)
Beals doesn't make any of this pretty. There are a lot of racial slurs and violence towards children in this book. There is some sexual violence, including an attempted rape of a child, but I suspect Beals very much played that aspect down.
I'm curious what her next book is like/about.