On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court handed down the decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas outlawing separate public schools for whites and blacks. In Little Rock, Arkansas, Melba Pattillo signed the paper requesting her chance to attend Central High School, reasoning that “if schools were open to my people, I would also get access to other opportunities I had been denied,” even in a city where 85% of the populace opposed integration. She became one of the “Little Rock Nine” by facing and enduring horrific violence lasting her entire junior year. 

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals was the selected book for USU’s third annual Common Literature Experience for students, faculty and residents of the valley. Freshmen in USU’s Connections class concluded their pre-fall-semester introduction to the rigors of college life and academic discourse with a lecture by Carlotta Walls LaNier, the youngest member of the famous “Nine.” She described similar experiences of physical and emotional violence. Her home was bombed; her father lost his job because of her. By sheer tenacity, eight of the nine finished the year, but Governor Faubus took steps to ensure that they would not return. He closed all high schools in Little Rock for the academic year 1958-59. 

The events described in the book were Associated Press’s number two story on a list that included the launching of Sputnik, and tracking President Eisenhower’s stroke. The nation was captivated with the showdown between Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who called in the National Guard to deny entrance to the students and President Eisenhower who sent federal troops to force compliance. 
Even with her personal military escort, Melba was sprayed in the face with acid, penned in a restroom stall while many girls lobbed flaming rolls of toilet paper onto her, repeatedly kicked, tripped, spit on and taunted. When he left, she had to figure out a way to disarm her attackers by replying with a meek, “Thank you.” Her grandmother’s constant support sustained Melba through daily attacks. “And Ethiopia shall stretch forth her wings,” she would say, quoting the Bible. “Be patient, our people’s turn will come. You’ll see. Your lifetime will be different from mine. I might not live to see the changes, but you will. …Oh, yes, my child, you will.”

In 1987, 30 years later, the “Nine” gathered again to enter Central High School where they were greeted by Governor Billy Clinton and the well-dressed black teenager who was student body president. In 1999 President Clinton bestowed the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, on each of the Little Rock Nine.
After LaNier’s USU lecture, 200 students lined up to meet her. “They were meeting a hero from history. The theme is timeless. It touched them,” says Noelle Call, director of USU’s office of Retention and First-Year Experience. —Marilyn Liddle ’73 ’96MA