"Little Rock's Finest" (Verbal Irony)
The police officers and federalized National Guard are ordered to protect the Little Rock Nine from violence and harassment. However, the authorities watch and ignore the violence or sometimes join in. Melba sarcastically calls these inept protectors "Little Rock's finest," an epithet usually given to competent and brave police officers and soldiers.
Little Rock 1987 (Dramatic Irony)
In 1987, Little Rock unveiled statues honoring the Little Rock Nine. The statues are placed on a site where the Ku Klux Klan, a notorious white supremacist terrorist group, planned to hang the students. Additionally, the Little Rock Nine gather in the mansion Orval Faubus built as guests of honor for the then-governor Bill Clinton. The celebrations are both moving and ironic, as the Little Rock Nine are commemorated and honored in spaces that belonged to those who threatened them, “celebrating on a spot where [they] could have been hanged.”
Achievement and Discrimination (Situational Irony)
Melba and the other eight are selected to integrate Central High based on their high academic achievement. Yet, students and faculty condescend to the Nine, abuse them, and insult their intelligence. Melba believes education will guarantee her respect and high social status. Yet, even as a professional, Beals achieved "academic awards," the "Congregational Gold Medal, doctoral degrees, and status as a professor and international speaker." Yet, despite all these successes, because of lingering racism people think of her as "just another 'maid,' 'aunt Jemima' or a second-class citizen as always."
Governor Orval Faubus (Dramatic Irony)
Governor Orval Faubus abuses his power and uses fear-mongering to prevent the Little Rock Nine from integrating Central High, thus maintaining the racial divide. Despite the rise in violence he purports to fear, Faubus spends the days leading up to integration "relaxing as he read about his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln." Faubus's response is ironic in two ways. First, though he stated an intense fear that "blood would run in the streets" if integration went through, he responds to actual violence with nonchalance. Second, he admires Abraham Lincoln, a political leader best remembered as an abolitionist, meaning he ended the legal enslavement of Black Americans during his office. In contrast, Faubus does everything in his power to disenfranchise Black Americans.
