Home > Author > Melba Pattillo Beals
1 " The task that remains is to cope with our interdependence - to see ourselves reflected in every other human being and to respect and honor our differences. "
― Melba Pattillo Beals , Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High
2 " The effort to separate ourselves whether by race, creed, color, religion, or status is as costly to the separator as to those who would be separated. "
3 " They where like so many of the adults around us, content to pretend that all was well....but we knew better "
4 " Until I am welcomed everywhere as an equal simply because I am human, I remain a warrior on a battlefield that I must not leave. I continue to be a warrior who does not cry but who instead takes action. If one person is denied equality, we are all denied equality. "
5 " If you go only where you are welcome, that’s where other people want you to go, not where you choose to go. You’re limited by their vision—not living your own dreams. "
― Melba Pattillo Beals , I Will Not Fear: My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith Under Fire
6 " Then I remember I'd always been told, 'If a fellow's got so little manhood he'd hit a woman, it's up to that woman to relieve him of what few morsels of his masculinity remain.' I bent my knee and jammed my foot backward, up his crotch. "
7 " Suddenly one of the huge front doors swings open. A black teenager impeccably dressed in morning coat and bow tie emerges ... 'Good morning, I am Derrick Noble, president of the student body. Welcome to Central High School. "
8 " I have only found the strength to visit five times in thirty years because of the uneasy feeling the city gives me. Three of those visits have been since Bill and Hillary Clinton took over the governor's mansion, because they set a tone that made me feel safer here. "
9 " When she began graduate school, our people [blacks] couldn't attend classes with whites at the University of Arkansas. After much grumbling and dickering, white folks had begun to allow small departments to integrate, class by class. "
10 " She [Melba's mother] would tell us the story of the lone black man who was trying to integrate the law school. In the classroom, he was forced to sit confined by a white picket fence erected around his desk and chair. "
11 " Even when the battle is long and the path is steep, a true warrior does not give up. If each one of us does not step forward to claim our rights, we are doomed to an eternal wait in hopes those who would usurp them will become benevolent. The Bible says, WATCH, FIGHT, and PRAY.” * * * Although "
12 " Life's lessons come from unexpected places. We cannot afford to allow prejudices to shut out God's blessings. Being equal is based on seeing equal. It is seated in each individual's willingness to claim their own equality despite all evidence to the contrary and all talk by others who dare to question their value. "
13 " Grandma entertained us with reading or checkers or chess so we wouldn't bother Mother as she studied for her night-school exams. She was determined to complete her master's degree. "
14 " Mother [Lois Marie Pattillo] began meeting with a few others from our community who were also determined to be admitted to the graduate school of education at the university. "
15 " My mother was one of the first few blacks to integrate the University of Arkansas, graduating in 1954. "
16 " Until I am welcomed everywhere as an equal simply because I am human, I remain a warrior on a battlefield that I must not leave. I continue to be a warrior who does not cry but who instead takes action. If one person is denied equality, we are all denied equality. —Melba Pattillo Beals "
17 " steam in an erupting volcano. “We "
