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

At the time, many schools were all-white or all-black. They had to integrate. In 1957, nine black students went to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. 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.”

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 group of white people blocked their way. Some screamed and spit on the students.

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” her. “There were no friends.”

One teacher helped Beals. That was Mrs. Pickwick. “She protected me,” Beals said. “Her gift to me was to be kind like a teacher.” Pickwick wasn’t the only adult who stood up for Beals. Dr. Martin Luther King did too.

Beals remembered their meeting. “When he sat down, he didn’t say a word,” she said. Beals told him that she wasn’t being treated fairly.

“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.’” Beals had wanted to leave the school. But she knew Dr. King was right.

After the school year, Beals moved to California. She went to college and studied journalism. She became an author and wrote books. And she had a message for children 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, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Laura Rubio