Melba Beals 'Warriors Don' T Cry

Extended Writing Project - Emily Lee

Many turning points in life are hard and difficult times. This topic is expressed in the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Pattillo Beals, who improved education for blacks, Jackie Robinson in his autobiography, I Never Had it Made, about how he made professional sports available to blacks, and in the article The Father of Chinese Aviation about Feng Ru and his process of bringing aviation to China. All of these people faced threats, but also had a good outcome. Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all faced life-changing events, and in its process changed and impacted their countries and societies.

Melba Pattillo Beals was one of the nine students to integrate Central High School in Little

Similar to Beals, he was challenged by threats of violence, refusion to accept him into the team, and racial slurs people yelled during games. Other that verbal threats, Robinson faced physical threats and “ out-and-out attempts at physical harm to me.” This shows that Robinson faced physical threats other than verbal threats. Even with all these challenges, Robinson worked on being the best ballplayer he could so white people could see past his skin color and see how well he plays baseball. Jackie said, “in the midst of a racially tense atmosphere during an early game in a Dixie town, cried out, “Attaboy, Jackie.” It broke the tension and it made me feel I had to succeed.”(Robinson) This shows that Jackie knows that people can see through his skin color, but he has to inspire or motivate them to do so. After this, Robinson grew to appreciate the people around him, especially Mr. Rickey. Robinson himself said “Mr. Rickey stood out as the man who inspired me the most. He will always have my admiration and respect.” This shows that he appreciates Mr. Rickey and looks up to him. Robinson also learned to ignore negativity and focus on positive things. To prove this, he said, “Many people who came to the ball park had not been baseball fans before I began to play in the big leagues.”(Robinson) This shows that people are supporting him, and he feels happy and touched. After all these challenges

Feng brought aviation to China hoping to bring industrialization to China and bring the knowledge of plane making. Feng was an immigrant to the U.S, and he was shocked at how our industrialization made us so prosperous, and Feng’s thoughts were that he was “staggered by America’s power and prosperity.”(Maskel) He also “understood that industrialization made the country great, and felt that industrialization could do the same for China.”(Feng) This shows that Feng wanted to bring industrialization to China. When he heard about the “Wright brother’s success, Feng turned his attention to aviation.” said When Feng was learning about aviation, he faced many challenges and obstacles, like curious people trying to see his planes, Americans refusing to help him, a tiny workshop, and that he wasn’t a completely educated engineer, and he faced death itself. These obstacles all tried to prevent him from building a successful plane. Even with these huge obstacles, Feng decided to keep working on building planes and testing them, although he had little engineering knowledge and he knew it was dangerous. With all these problems in his life, he still grew more determined to bring aviation to China he “rarely finished work before 3am.” This shows that Feng worked late so he could work on his planes. Feng also became more courageous since he crashed a lot, which is dangerous and risky because he could die. When he flew his plane in