Warriors Don\'t Cry: Role of Women and the African-American Middle Class

¶ … Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies." -- Robert F. Kennedy

The United States during the 1950s and 1960s was a nation in turmoil. Although progress had certainly been made since the founding of the country nearly two centuries before, a great number of the population were still living as second class citizens. Rights that were guaranteed the citizenry by the Constitution were suspended in the cases of African-Americans due to the illegal practice of segregation and a racially biased majority. Particularly in the American South, it was impossible for an African-American person to hope for equal status with a white person. At the same time, women were still subjected to marginalization by the patriarchy that had run the country, only earning the right to vote a few decades before. An African-American woman was thus subjected to oppression both on the basis of her ethnicity and her gender. For anyone to emerge from this historical period and reach the upper echelons of society is nothing short of miraculous. Melba Patillo Beal's experiences as one of a handful of students who were permitted to integrate into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas during 1957, as narrated in her autobiographical work Warriors Don't Cry, was affected by Southern attitudes toward race, the role of women in the 1950's, as well as political opposition to the very notion of integration of white schools.

When we think of the pre-Civil War American South, the movie Gone with the Wind may come to mind. The icon of the southern gentlemen with impeccable manners escorting the typical "southern belle" with all their fine clothes and their privileged lifestyle reflects this impression. In the movie, the heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, goes from being a spoiled, naive girl to a very strong, independent woman as a result of the trials and tribulations of the Civil War. This war tore our country apart, and is primarily remembered as the northern and southern people, facing off to preserve their ideas regarding the issue of race. The northern states wanted to abolish slavery, as they were against the evil of keeping another human in bondage. They also wanted to move toward a more fair system of labor. The Southern states wanted to hold on to their slave labor, keep their lives of privilege, and their white supremacist attitudes. Not directly stated in the movie, but obvious to the viewer, is the regions' discriminatory racial hierarchy. White people held all of the power in the region, and black people were the powerless, illiterate slaves.