Warriors+2

//Warriors Don't Cry//, group 2

Ashley M. Graham D. Sarah M. John S. Warriors Don’t Cry

Living as a black girl in the 1950s was difficult, and Melba Patillo, a girl from Little Rock, Arkansas, knows the whole story. Melba was a high school student entering Central High, an all white school, for the first time. This was the beginning of the desegregation of whites and blacks in their community that was forced upon them by the government.

Back when Melba was in grade school, the ( Supreme Court case ) Brown vs. Board of education required the segregation in the town to no longer be enforced. “When my teacher asked if anyone who lived within the Central High School district wanted to attend school with white people, I raised my hand.” (Patillo, pg. 28) Three years later, her family was notified that Melba had been accepted into Central High School, and she then realized what she had gotten herself into.

The majority of the white people living in the area did not want her and all of the other black student entering Central High. As Melba ( always use first and last name or last name only, this is more respectful ) walked into school on the first day, she was shouted at, spat on, and had things thrown at her. This was nothing like she had imagined when she was given the opportunity to go to this school. “As I signed my name on the paper they passed around, I thought about all those times I’d gone past Central High wanting to see inside.” (Patillo, pg. 28) The world had not been what she thought it was when she was a little girl, and it wasn’t better. Melba ignored what the white people were doing to her as she entered the school. She didn’t care. She wanted to prove a point, and she wanted to make a difference throughout her town. So, she kept a positive attitude and didn’t give up.

The situation in //Warriors Don't Cry// is sometimes difficult to relate to because the 1950s is an unfamiliar time period and racial discrimination has retired. However, it is easy to relate to because we still experience different types of segregation in school or in our everyday work place. In high school today, we segregate based on bias differences and unsimilar interests. We also discriminate when it comes to things like college applications and employment. Segregation will always be present, even if it's not solvable by the government, so everybody is capable of relating to Melba's situation, and understanding the message she was trying to convey.

What can a reader learn from this book? Good work with the rest of your post, but watch spelling/mechanics, they detract from your points.