Warriors Don T Cry Melba

In the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry Melba Pattillo Beals illustrates the characteristics of a warrior that are required to fight for social change. Melba has to deal with continuous hatred from whites and blacks, and these unfortunate events morph her into a faithful and courageous warrior.

    Melba uses multiple weapons to get her through her journey at Central. The weapons she continuously uses are her faith in God, her words, and her courage. To begin with, on her second day at Central, Melba is experiencing an abundance of hatred. One girl spit on her, others walk on her heels, and a majority call her awful names: “To keep my focus, I began saying the Lord's Prayer” (Beals 147). This demonstrates her using her faith in God as a weapon in

tough times, becauses students are continually antagonizing her and instead of retaliating she says the Lord's Prayer. Additionally, on the same day, a boy kicked her and she fell to the ground, and the students cheered “The niggers down” (Beals 148). She wants to cry, but she tells herself, “ I have to be like a soldier in battle” (Beals 149). This shows her courage, because instead of crying and looking weak, she gets herself together and walks in her homeroom confident and ready to finish her day. Lastly , Melba is at lunch and none of the Little Rock nine are there. When Melba sits down a group of boys cornered her and started calling her horrible names. One said “Niggers are stupid, they gotta work real hard, don't they? (Beals 260). Her response is “Thanks for the compliment” (Beals 260). She uses her words as a weapon. Instead of saying something impolite she outsmarts them and kills them with kindness.
    Melba face is a tremendous amount of battles which revealed many characteristics about her, but the one that stands out the most is her faith.

First of all, students are yelling and chasing Melba, one tripped her and she fell forward cutting her knee and elbow: “ I was in tears ready to give up paralyzed by fear. Suddenly grandma's voice came into my head: “God never loses one of his flock.” Shepherd, show me how to go, I said. I stood still and repeated those words over and over again until I gained some composure” (Beals 113). Melba is ready to give up, but she remembers some encouraging words her grandma told her. After that she gets up and finishes her day, without faith she probably would not have complete her journey at Central. Furthermore, Melba is at school and a girl starts walking on her heels, Melba quickens her pace, but the other girl quickens her pace as well: “To keep my focus, I began saying the Lord's Prayer. I continued to whisper those words under my breath as I approach the door to my homeroom at the top of the third-floor stairs” (Beals 147). This shows that she is faithful, because she could have cursed, yelled, or screamed at that girl, but instead she said the Lord's Prayer. Finally, Melba is physically and mentally tired with everything that is going on at Central. She starts to cry so her grandma said, “You're a warrior for the Lord. God's warriors don't cry, ‘because they trust that he's always by their side’(Beals 57). This gives her courage to go on, but without faith she would not have believed what her grandma said, and she probably would have killed

herself.
    Beals  purpose in writing this book is the bring insight to how bad things were back when she was trying to integrate Central. Her message to her readers is to pursue your dreams and that you should never give up. If you get knocked down, get right back up. Prove the naysayers wrong by becoming successful.
Beals successfully delivered her message because at the end of the book she is at peace: “I look back on my Little Rock integration experience as ultimately a positive force that shaped the course of my life” (Beals 312). Becoming a warrior is difficult and for Melba and the other eight they did not have a choice. They had to become a warrior or be killed in battle. There were many battles, and they might not have won all of them, but they won the war.