Warriors Don't Cry

Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals

What Melba endured as a high school junior integrating Central High in 1957 can only be described as state sponsored warfare on African-Americans. The internal strength she and the rest of the Little Rock 9 exhibited, to get up and go to school every day, is something I can't even imagine.

I didn't enjoy reading about this shameful time in US history. In fact, I found it difficult to read. The abuse these 9 kids suffered to segregate Central High in Little Rock is really beyond explanation. I knew they had a tough time, but I didn't know it was the National Guard assigned to protect them enabled the abusers level of tough. I didn't know the 101st Airborne were assigned as literal bodyguards for the first couple of weeks of school. They should have been there all year, but I guess President Eisenhower couldn't risk upsetting the delicate sensibilities of white assholes in Little Rock.

The book is basically torture porn. But it's torture porn that should be required reading in every high school in America. Ironically, it's actually illegal in Virginia now, as our Trump-lite Governor has made it illegal to use any book in school that might hurt the feelings of a white person.

The irony of just how much white kids in Virginia need to read this book would clearly be lost on him.