Will I love Warriors Don't Cry?

One of nine Black students to integrate the high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, Beals faces threats to her life as well as constant cruelty not only from white people but also from members of her own community, who disapprove of her decision. Her book gives us an unflinching account of what it feels like to be inside the maelstrom. Education seems almost beside the point when she needs protection from the National Guard. Most resonant to me, Beals admits that being a warrior for social change is exhausting. “Sometimes,” she writes in her diary, “I just need… show more.

We all know the iconic photograph of the Little Rock Nine; the nine black students who first integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the picture, you see a young black female, walking stoically towards school, clutching books, hidden behind dark glasses as a mob of white people screams at her. What is behind that face?

This is that story. The story of how the American legal system creates fear and loathing. Her truth stares you in the face, her strength resonates in your backbone. Rather than curse her oppressors, she reveals the heroes, the villains, the people, and… show more.