Melba Pattillo Beals

Born on December 7, 1941, the same day as the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Beals grew up in a family that prized education. Her mother, Lois Marie Pattillo, earned a PhD, was one of the first black graduates of the University of Arkansas in 1954 who worked as a middle school English teacher. Her black father, Howell Pattillo, worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Beals' brother, Conrad S. Pattillo, served as U.S. Marshal of the Eastern District of Arkansas during the Clinton Administration.

While attending Horace Mann High School in Little Rock, an all-black high school, Patillo became aware that she was not receiving the same quality education as her peers at Central High School. Patillo then volunteered to transfer to the all-white Central High School with eight other black students from Horace Mann and Dunbar Junior High School in Little Rock.[1]

External video
“Interview with Melba Pattillo Beals" conducted for Eyes on the Prize. Discussion centers on her experiences as one of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Beals was 14 years old when she chose to enroll at Central High school, an all-white school in May 1956.[2] The nine black students faced mobs that forced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne Division to protect their lives after the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, used National Guard troops to block the students' entry to the school. Beals planned on returning to Central High for the 1958–1959 school year, but Governor Faubus shut down all Little Rock high schools that failed to resist integration,[3] leading to other school districts across the South to do the same. Not until August 1959 did Central High reopen on an integrated basis.

Beals relocated to Santa Rosa, California with help from the NAACP to complete her senior year of high school at Montgomery High School. Beals lived with the family of foster parents Dr. George and Carol McCabe.[4] At the age of seventeen, she began writing for major newspapers and magazines.

Beals attended San Francisco State University, earning a bachelor's degree. She later earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

While in college, she met John Beals, whom she later married. They had one daughter, Kellie, and later divorced. Around 1992, Beals adopted twin sons, Matthew and Evan.[5][6]

Beals' book Warriors Don't Cry chronicles the events of 1957 during the Little Rock crisis, based partly on diaries she kept during the period. She also wrote White is a State of Mind, which begins where Warriors left off.[7] To date, Warriors Don't Cry continues to be a #1 Amazon bestseller in the "Prejudice Books for Teens & Young Adults" genre.[8]

In 1959, the NAACP awarded the Spingarn Medal to Beals and to the other members of the Little Rock Nine, together with civil rights leader Daisy Bates, who had advised the group during their struggles at Central High. In 1999, she and the rest of the Nine were awarded the highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. Only three hundred others have received this.[9]

On May 22, 2009, she received her Doctoral Degree in Education at the University of San Francisco. The day marked USF's 150th annual commencement ceremony.

Beals currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She taught journalism at Dominican University of California, where she is the chair emeritus of the communications department.[10]

External video
Booknotes interview with Melba Patillo Beals on Warriors Don't Cry, November 27, 1994, C-SPAN

• Appearances on C-SPAN at C-SPAN
• Warriors Don’t Cry: Connecting History, Literature, and Our Lives a teaching activity from the Zinn Education Project.