“Warriors Don’t Cry” by Melba Pattillo Beals is an integration story of trial and triumph in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The struggle of nine young, African American students is the highlighted storyline.  These nine students suffer intolerable pains.  They and their families experience the utmost torture.  Knowing that their courage will bring an end to segregation and new hope for the future they survive one full year of high school as integrated students.

            The book begins with a small background of Melba Pattillo Beals.  She is writing this book from her point of view and she expresses some of her dreams dealing with equality among the races.  Early on in the book as Melba is still in middle school she is given the chance to attend Central High School when she reaches the age to go to high school.  Little does she know that going to Central High School may actually be a possibility for her future schooling.

            As the book progresses the untouchable possibility of attending Central High School comes closer and closer to being a reality.  As the opportunity more thoroughly presents itself, President Eisenhower, the NAACP, and Thurgood Marshall begin to be involved to fight for the equal right of integrated high schools.  Countless court cases and hearings among the Supreme Court become encouraging to the cause of school integration.  People express their desire for equality or more severe segregation.  Here the book becomes a little shaky because it leaves the reader wondering whether integration can still be a possibility.

             Among the confusion of segregation and integration, the nine students, originally signed up for Central High School, are sent into meetings in preparation for attendance.  The struggle for integration seems to have gained a victory over the challenge of segregation.  At this point, fear, confusion, and anxiousness fill the hearts of these nine students.  Upon the first day of integration, the “Little Rock nine,” as the students were nicknamed, were kept from the school by soldiers sent by Arkansas’s governor, Faubus.

            Following the injustice of being kept out of Central High School by Governor Faubus, the NAACP and their lawyer Thurgood Marshall present cases in support of integration.  After hundreds of cases and testimonies by the “Little Rock nine,” President Eisenhower orders integration and his plan is carried out.  Inside the school is where the real war and danger begins.

            When one year inside the school is completed, the “Little Rock nine” are worn out and more than ready for the long summer vacation awaiting them.  In the end the students enjoy their summer vacations after the year of torture.  The trial and triumph is clearly presented in the struggling story of the “Little Rock nine."