Warriors Don't Cry

Warriors Don't Cry

YA herstory
"'The crowd is moving fast. They've broken the barriers. These
kids are trapped in here.'
'Good Lord, you're right,' another voice said. 'We may have to
let the mob have one of those kids, so's we can distract them long
enough to get the others out.'
'Let one of these kids hang? How's that gonna look? Niggers or
not, they're children, and we got a job to do.'"
Can you imagine being a teen and overhearing the above
conversation take place at your school, a place that is supposed to
be, at the very least, safe? Try to wrap your mind around being a
teen and hearing one of the adults in charge seriously ponder turning
one of your friends or you over to a lynch mob of angry whites
breaking into the building. This is only one of the horrifying
situations Melba Pattillo Beals portrays in her eye opening Warriors
Don't Cry.
In 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court
mandated an end to segregation in education. Not all states and towns
took kindly to this edict. Little Rock, Arkansas was bitterly opposed
to integration. Governor Faubus was throwing his considerable weight
in on the segregationists' side.
Beals was one of the nine students chosen to integrate Central
High in 1957. In Warriors Don't Cry she shares the story of her
ordeal. It's an excellent book to introduce middle and high school
students to this less than great chapter in American history. It's
also a good read for those of us well beyond its target demographics.
There are plenty in the alt right today with attitudes as venemous as
those of the segregationists who attempted to lynch the teens.
American schools are even more segregated than they were in 1957.
And, as Beals reminds us, we have a long way to go to achieve racial
equality.
"The first round of this battle was never about integration in
my opinion. It was always about access--access to opportunity, to
resources, to freedom. The enemy was more visible, the battle lines
drawn in plain sight. What I call the 'new racism' is about success--
success in terms of cultural, social, and economic status."
On a personal note, Friday I had another epiphany, making it three in
three days. I'd changed the format for my memoir from poetry which
segued poorly to a poetry/prose hybrid which didn't excite me all that
much. A sentence popped into my head when I was talking to friends at
Women's Resource Center. Despite having made my air breathing debut
September 21, 1951, I am not a big fan of the folks born in the
fifteen years following World War II. At home the sentence grew into
two pages. At that point I knew that I had my memoir voice. I also
realized it has to do with demographics, with whom I want my readers
to be. I want to choose them intentionally, not by default. When I
did my Artsapalooza poetry debut I went by Julia Hathaway and drew the
70 something crowd. Jules Hathaway drew college to working. I hit
the sweet spot with Too Cool Jules--working and college with even some
high school. For readers I want mostly people 40 and down, those who
share my idealism and passion, those I understand and communicate with
best, those who might actually listen to me, and the small number of
older folks who didn't sell out or give up. Like Elizabeth Warren. I
would love for her to read it. I am going to get as much of the first
draft done as possible summer break. Hopefully.
A great big shout out goes out to the chums with whom I hang out at
Womens Resource Center and Rainbow Resource Room.
jules hathaway


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