Melba Patillo Beals

Imagine a small group of high school students needing armed United States military just to get into school. In September 1957 9. African American students, the first to enroll at Central high School in Little Rock, Arkansas, were accompanied by armed national guard members  They became known as the Little Rock Nine. Among them was 15-year-old Melba Patillo, later Melba Patillo Beals.  Somehow, she and the rest of a little rock nine escaped any kind of serious physical harm. I first met her in 1994, when she wrote a memoir of her experience called warriors. Don't cry.