Summary
As Melba drives away, she fears for her life, as segregationists might think she stole a "Central High white boy's car." Melba arranges with Link to drop his car off at an ice cream shop. Throughout the following weeks, Link acknowledges Melba with a wink or a smile and warns that the segregationists are targeting her because she is "tall," "pretty," and "not meek." Link and Melba develop a friendship, though Melba is not sure she can trust him.
Link takes her to visit Nana Healy, the Black woman who raised him, to convince Mrs. Healy to see a doctor. He also warns Melba that the students are planning "something big" to prevent the Little Rock Nine from finishing the school year and graduating.
Mother Lois's school refuses to renew her teaching contract unless she withdraws Melba from Central High before the school year ends. With mounting bills and financial pressures, Mother Lois decides to tell her story to news reporters and speaks with the community bishops; eventually, she gets her job back.
As graduation approaches, the Little Rock Nine are forced only to attend "final exams" and "attend classes critical to...completing the year" because of increased violence as segregationists try and stop the students from graduating. On her last day, Melba burns her schoolbooks and papers bearing the "names of people [she] disliked at Central High."
Ernie, the only senior, attends the graduation ceremony despite "threats of bombs and Ku Klux Klan activity." The same day, Nana Healy dies, and Link, distraught, asks Melba to move to Harvard University with him. Melba refuses because "everything depends on" her continuing to integrate Central.
The Little Rock Nine, including Minnijean, fly to Chicago and receive the Robert S. Abbot Award for "bravery and significant contributions to democracy." On a nationwide tour, the eight are "paraded across stages" and "hobnob[...] backstage" with celebrities, including Melba's favorite musician, Johnny Mathis. Though treated like "heroes and heroines" up north, the Little Rock Nine return home, where Governor Faubus shut down all high schools in a last-ditch effort to halt integration.
Melba spends the year isolated and hated, and Grandma India dies of leukemia. The NAACP arranges for Melba to finish her education in California with a highly educated family of "politically conscious Quakers committed to racial equality."
The memoir ends with adult Melba reflecting on her experiences and the subsequent phases of her personal life and career. She attends college and becomes a journalist. She marries a white soldier and has a daughter but divorces after seven years due to ideological and lifestyle differences. Though Melba recognizes how essential her traumatic school year was for the Civil Rights Movement, she grapples with her parents' choice to let her attend such a violent school.
Analysis
Throughout the text, Melba uses pop culture references, particularly to music, to draw connections between herself and her peers. For example, when Link gives Melba his car, she notices he has "the same records [she] might have chosen...Johnny Mathis, Sam Cooke, Elvis, and Pat Boone." A mix of black and white artists, Link's identical music preferences indicate that, though segregationists argue black and white students can't peacefully learn together, Melba and Link are more alike than different.
Link's treatment of Melba implies that he is interested in her romantically. He calls her "pretty," winks at her, and constantly worries for her safety. This hypothesis is later confirmed when, after Melba's marriage to a white man, Link cuts off contact with her, angered that they were never together.
Melba includes diary entries from March and April that detail how, as the school year draws to a close, harassment and social isolation increases at Central. These diary entries, presented in quick succession, allow the reader to share in Melba's rising sense of tension and the sense that "nobody is steering the ship" as adults and authorities watch the violence unfold or stoke the flames of discontent.
Ernie receives his diploma to no applause and is rushed away immediately after. Despite making it to the end of the year, a symbolic and personal victory, the Little Rock Nine are still excluded and unwelcome at Central High.
The Little Rock Nine visit many cities during the summer after their first year at Central High. During this tour, they are treated like "heroes and heroines," receiving medals and awards. Melba uses romantic, glamourous imagery, like standing before "adoring audiences," riding in limos, and staying in suites at the Statler Hilton, to contrast the ridicule she received at Central High with how the rest of the world sees her.
In the text's conclusion, Melba speculates that Governor Faubus's inflammatory speeches and his choice to call in the National Guard complicated the integration process. Looking back, Melba asks her mother what "possessed" her and other parents to allow the students "to go to that school in the face of such violence." As an adult and a parent, Melba believes she would not have allowed her child to integrate Central, though she fully understands the value of her presence in the school. She expresses frustration that decades later, school integration is still not a reality.
Melba looks back on her experiences at Central High with mixed emotions. Ultimately, she concludes that the biggest lesson she learned from attending Central High is "we are not separate." Though segregation aimed to establish "separate but equal" worlds for Black and white Americans, Melba believes that hatred and injustice impact everyone, and "the separator" and "those who would be separated" both suffer. By this, Melba means that living with hatred and ignorance is a horrible fate, and the world cannot progress when people are excluded.
