America used to be a very different place. For years, black and white children could not drink from the same water fountains or use the same bathrooms. They couldn’t even go to the same schools. That began to change in 1954. That year, the Supreme Court said it was against the law for schools to separate black and white students.

At the time, most schools across the South were either all-white or all-black. They would soon have to integrate. One school in Little Rock, Arkansas, had to figure it out. In 1957, nine black students tried to attend Central High School. At age 15, Melba Pattillo Beals was one of the “Little Rock Nine.”

“I wanted a better education,” Beals told News-O-Matic. Black schools were not equal to white schools. Beals’ all-black school had broken desks and old typewriters. “It was sort of handed down from the white school,” she explained. Beals called Central High “a castle... with statues and all sorts of stuff.”

On September 4, 1957, Beals and the other eight black students went to school for the first day of class. They never got to the door. A large group of white people and soldiers blocked their way. Some screamed and spit on the young students. The Little Rock Nine had to head home.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower stepped in. He sent 1,200 soldiers to lead the students to school safely. Beals finally got to class on September 25, 1957. But each day was a challenge. “It was like going to war every morning,” Beals said. She said the white students chose to “ignore” the black students. “There were no friends available.”

One special teacher helped Beals through this difficult time. That was Mrs. Pickwick. She was “fair, kind, and she protected me,” Beals added. “Her gift to me was to be kind like a teacher.” Pickwick wasn’t the only adult who stood up for Beals’ rights.

Dr. Martin Luther King visited Little Rock to show his support. “I was just so impressed by the stillness inside of him,” Beals remembered from their meeting. “When he sat down, he didn’t say a word,” she added. Instead, he listened. And Beals told him about the unfair way she had been treated and how she had been hurt.

“That’s when he said to me, ‘Melba, don’t be selfish. You are not doing this for yourself but for generations yet unborn,’” Beals recalled. “‘You have to keep going, you know.’”

Beals had wanted to quit the school. But she knew Dr. King was right. “I gave up my life, my comfort, my family,” Beals said. It was never easy. “Every single day of that experience was gut-wrenching.”

After the school year, Beals moved to California. She later went to college and studied journalism. She became an author and wrote books about her time in Little Rock. And she had a message for children growing up today.

“Love is the only answer,” Beals said. And she wants grown-ups to help. “It’s up to educators and parents to blend, to make sure children get an experience of each other,” she said.

“And to point out that we are all equal.”


Updated February 13, 2018, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Laura Rubio