Authors: Melba Pattillo Beals
ISBN-13: 9781416948827, ISBN-10: 1416948821
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Date Published: July 2007
Edition: Abridged Edition with New Forward
In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School.
Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down.
This is her remarkable story.
The author was one of nine black teenagers who in 1957 integrated their high school despite violent retaliation. (Aug.)