Melba Beals

Melba Beals (also known as Melba Pattillo Beals) was born in 1941. She spent the majority of her youth reading and writing and excelled in academia. In 1955, Beals was listening to Walter Cronkite when he announced that Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas would be integrated. Beals moved with her family from Ohio to Arkansas, joining eight other students to champion equality by attending the same school as white students. This participation threatened her life, but she believed deeply in self-sacrifice for the cause of equality. Melba was an active writer during her trying days at Central High School, and has continued to use that skill. She has since then been a featured author in publications, including People and Essence and the San Francisco Examiner. She has also written several books, including Warriors Don't Cry and White is a State of Mind. Today, Beals lives in San Francisco, is the mother of three, and continues to deliver speeches and addresses of inspiration.

Civil Rights Era

Beals was a major contributor to the Civil Rights Movement. As one of the Little Rock Nine, the nine black students who attended Central High School in Little Rock in 1957-58, she endured death threats and violent racism, Beals survives as an American hero who risked her life for racial equality. Her active participation and continued dedication to the cause of equality, was recognized in 1998 when she received a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest mark of honor from the Congress of the United States.

Bibliography

Information for this biography was gathered from the following sources:

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