Summary
President Eisenhower sends military veterans from the 101st Regiment to Little Rock, proclaiming that violent mob rule will not override the democratic rulings of the court. The soldiers escort the Little Rock Nine to school while helicopters circle overhead and bayonetted soldiers surround the students. Melba and the other eight walk up the front steps, where no other Black students have walked before.
A soldier named Danny shadows Melba throughout the day, but even his presence doesn't stop the white students from harassing Melba. At the end of the day, the Little Rock Nine leave with the soldiers and exchange horror stories of their days, joking with one another to ease the pain. When the students gather at Daisy Bates' home, reporters from the New York Post, impressed with Melba's answers, offer to print her thoughts about the integration process if she puts them into writing.
On her second day at Central High, a crowd of students attempts to block the Little Rock Nine but quickly moves for the soldiers. A group of boys kicks Melba while she is on the ground; her bodyguard, Danny, does not intervene, as he is not allowed to "get in verbal or physical battles" with the students. Melba reports the assault but is dismissed as the soldiers are not considered sufficient witnesses.
Throughout the day, Melba endures "annoying little pranks" and whispered insults, separating actions that hurt her from those that get on her nerves and modeling her posture and behavior after the soldiers in the 101st.
On Friday, the students head to school after Governor Faubus gives an "inflammatory speech," calling Little Rock an "occupied city." The school buzzes with tension from Faubus's speech and excitement for a football game that afternoon. During homeroom, a girl stabs Melba with the sharp point of a pole bearing the Confederate flag. Then, while Melba walks down the stairwell, an unidentified assailant throws a lit stick of dynamite at her, which Danny quickly diffuses. After a nerve-wracking pep rally, a group of boys threatens and chokes Melba, prompting Danny to suggest she learn to defend herself.
Melba spends the weekend disconnected from the news, trying to regain a sense of normalcy and reclaim her pre-integration identity. Though her former friends ignore or criticize her, Melba finds brief joy in spending shopping with her family and going on her first real date with Vince.
At school on Monday, the soldiers stand back, and students begin harassing Melba even more severely. The soldiers are then replaced by the Arkansas National Guard, who are "most likely wearing sheets and burning crosses" at night.
Melba and Minnijean then go to the principal, demanding protection and threatening to expose the schools' incompetence if students continue to assault them. The principal compromises by giving the Little Rock Nine bodyguards picked from the Arkansas National Guard.
The 101st guards return, and the white students stage a walkout in protest, where they hang an effigy. Later that day, a student blinds Melba with acid, which Danny washes from her eyes quickly. However, Melba still has to wear eyepatches and glasses.
Governor Faubus revs up his anti-integration campaign, spreading false information that the 101st veterans enter the girls' lavatory and calling for the Little Rock Nine to be taken out of Central High. Melba suffers from stress-induced illnesses, which she pretends is the flu.
The Little Rock Nine attend a meeting with the segregationist students led by Sammy Dean Parker and Kaye Bacon. The white students refuse to see the Little Rock Nine's perspective and spread rumors throughout the press, such as one that the NAACP is paying the students to attend Central High.
The National Guard and 101st escorts dwindle. At school, rumors spread that Minnijean will perform in the school talent show, and segregationist students threaten all members of the Little Rock Nine; in one attack, Melba injures her wrist and ankle; in another, girls hold Melba under scalding water.
Analysis
War is a motif throughout the text to emphasize the dangerous nature of the Little Rock Nine's fight for freedom. When the 101st Regiment arrives at the school, Beals continues the military motif introduced by Grandma India's proclamation that "warriors don't cry." Melba begins to narrate the military protocol and crowds in blow-by-blow detail, creating a tone similar to descriptions of a battlefield.
When the 101st Regiment is recalled to Kentucky, Melba begins speaking to herself like a soldier taking orders to process the harassment she endures. The text expresses this mindset using short, action-focused sentence fragments and military phrases, such as "assess damage" and "remain mobile."
With good reason, Melba and her community usually don't trust authority, like the police, who often turn out to be brutal racists. However, the "pristine lines of marching soldiers," helicopters, and military vehicles calm Melba and signify safety.
The segregationist students hardly give Melba a moment of peace as she attempts to obtain an education. Even during classes, students harass Melba in full view of their teachers. Melba recounts each class, giving examples of the various insults and attacks she endures. The text simulates the ceaseless torment Melba endures through these details, explaining her physical and emotional exhaustion.
As she journeys through Central High, Melba can't help but compare the well-funded, prestigious school to her former school, Horace Mann. Melba finds it ironic that, though Horace Mann is small and poorly funded, the standard of education at Horace Mann is much higher. For example, Melba's study hall at Central High is "double the size of the largest classroom" at Horace Mann. Yet, Central High students spend their free period "stomping, walking, shouting, sailing paper airplanes" as though they are "having a wild party," behavior that would not be tolerated in Melba's school.
Paralleling Melba's traumatic childhood memory of entering the "White Ladies" restroom, Melba ducks into a bathroom at school, where a group of white students assaults her. The girls first mock Melba and tell her to leave, just like the white women in the department store restroom. The girls then lock Melba in the stall and throw flaming objects at her. However, unlike in her childhood experience, Melba fights back by throwing her heavy textbooks at the girls, who back off. Choosing to fight back is a pivotal moment for Melba because, throughout her childhood, she internalized a sense of shame from accepting mistreatment.
A redheaded girl pretends to be kind to Melba and then stabs her with the pole of a Confederate flag. The Confederate flag, used by the South in the American Civil War over slavery, symbolizes violence against Black Americans. The segregationist attempts to physically and psychologically wound Melba by stabbing Melba with such a symbolic weapon.
