• Warriors Don't Cry

  • A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High
  • By: Melba Pattillo Beals
  • Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
  • Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (606 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Warriors Don't Cry  By  cover art

Warriors Don't Cry

By: Melba Pattillo Beals
Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.62

Buy for $17.62

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, brought the promise of integration to Little Rock, Arkansas, but it was hard-won for the nine Black teenagers chosen to integrate Central High School in 1957. They ran a gauntlet flanked by a rampaging mob and a heavily armed Arkansas National Guard-opposition so intense that soldiers from the elite 101st Airborne Division were called in to restore order. For Melba Beals and her eight friends those steps marked their transformation into reluctant warriors - on a battlefield that helped shape the civil rights movement.

Warriors Don't Cry, drawn from Melba Beals's personal diaries, is a riveting true account of her junior year at Central High-one filled with telephone threats, brigades of attacking mothers, rogue police, fireball and acid-throwing attacks, economic blackmail, and, finally, a price upon Melba's head. With the help of her English-teacher mother; her eight fellow warriors; and her gun-toting, Bible-and-Shakespeare-loving grandmother, Melba survived. And, incredibly, from a year that would hold no sweet-sixteen parties or school plays, Melba Beals emerged with indestructible faith, courage, strength, and hope.

©1994 Melba Patillo Beals (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Beals, one of the nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, AR, in 1957, tells an incredible story of faith, family love, friendships, and strong personal commitment." (School Library Journal)

What listeners say about Warriors Don't Cry

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    463
  • 4 Stars
    91
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    27
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    394
  • 4 Stars
    75
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    26
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    427
  • 4 Stars
    49
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    19

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Proud of My Race? Well, Proud of Shared Humanity!

Based on her diaries and on her English teacher mother's copious notes and newspaper clippings, this memoir comes on challenging, hard-hitting, and with a human warmth that you just hunger for. Melba is the perfect personification for the huge challenge of Central High's integration--not that the other individuals aren't worthwhile, but there's just such a strength within her innocence, such love and gentleness within her steely resilience, it's just overwhelming at times. She was a young girl; she was a soldier. And she always questioned segregation and second-class citizenship: Why isn't ever our turn? She was perfect for the challenges she later faced (challenges that would've, quite honestly, broken me).
Right away, from the time the law has changed, Melba is thrust into the world of adults with big ideas--those that further grand designs, and those that further threats of violence. And right away, the violence, at least turns real.
This memoir is chock full of the politics, the violence of the time, but it's also full of the freshness of the heart, of a girl who just wants to be her age and go to a pajama party (but who isn't invited due to fears it might be targeted for violence if she went), of a girl whose grandmother hammers in a painting and she frantically wakes up, dreaming that she's been shot.
And you know, it's bad enough the violence children inflict up each other, but it's drop-dead horrific the twisted hatred adults will bear towards the innocent. This memoir has anger, blood, and fire. But it has friendship, loyalty, and faith too.
Most of all, it has Melba--somebody so profoundly human, yet so courageous it's astounding.
And by the way? The performance of Lisa Renee Pitts is extraordinary! She captures hope, hatred, conveys suspense, dread, and love. Really, this is a great, great book. Well worth your credit, and to say it's worth your time? Hell, it'll change the way you look at life...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Chapters

Not the same as my book. All. The chapters were different and it was hard for me to read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Where does the first chapter begin?

Where do I begin I cannot find the first chapter
Actually I cannot find any chapters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

It Was Okay.

Would you try another book from Melba Pattillo Beals and/or Lisa Reneé Pitts?

No, I didn't enjoy this book. I know it all really happened but I just do not find these kinds of stories very good. I mean all this book really does is make white people feel like crap because of what we did like 60 years ago.

Would you ever listen to anything by Melba Pattillo Beals again?

No. I found the whole thing very annoying.

Would you be willing to try another one of Lisa Reneé Pitts’s performances?

No, I found the whole thing very annoying.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Warriors Don't Cry?

A lot. I know one of the paper copies I have of this book is a lot shorter. I would take out the whole long speech at the end and some of the journal entries.

Any additional comments?

I am totally going to return this once I'm done writing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

voices

there was a good difference between characters. you could tell who was who by the voices. overall very good book i highly recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

inspiring and Encouraging book

This book was required for summer reading for my daughter. I'm so glad I got the chance to listen through audible. My daughter and I talked about courage and the importance of developing that quality. Melba and the other eight certainly displayed that quality!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A poignant memoir - a MUST READ for all!

Would you consider the audio edition of Warriors Don't Cry to be better than the print version?

Yes, the narrator made the book come to life!

Have you listened to any of Lisa Reneé Pitts’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first listen to her performance - very very GOOD!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! I nearly did...in two days I was finished and wanted to hear more!

Any additional comments?

I was so moved by this book and feel it should be a requirement in EVERY middle school in America. Education Education Education!!!!

As a young student of Denver Public Schools in the 1970's, I was never taught about the Little Rock 9 or any other Civil Rights movement. I was not made aware of any of it until 6 years ago when my then middle school son went on a school trip to Little Rock to visit Central High schoool. I was shocked and appalled and ashamed that my public education skipped over the heroic efforts that these amazing young students made in order to find the equality they deserved.

Melba's account of her horrifying experiences as a pioneer black woman integrating an all white school are sobering and heart-breaking. She sacrificed her entire high school experience on behalf of her own race. No prom, no sporting events, no school plays, rarely going into public for fear of literally being killed. I am so grateful for her courage to overcome the torture she faced every single day at school, just wanting to have the same education afforded to the white people. It makes me ill to think that anyone could do the horrible things these young white students did to the the Little Rock 9. Further, their parents taught them to be the demons they were.

I pray that our children will continue to push for equality and make this nation a better place to live. We are all one...ALL ONE!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This Warrior made me cry!

What did you love best about Warriors Don't Cry?

I've heard the story of the Little Rock Nine, but this tells of the real story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Melba, of course!

What does Lisa Reneé Pitts bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She reads story very well, but when reading the part of her Grandmother dhe brings her alive.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes , I was anxious to return to it everyday.

Any additional comments?

Great story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Black Lives Matter

This book perfectly captures what it meant to be a person of color in the 1950s. Learn more of black history and our hardships through Melba Pattillo Beals heart wrenching and soul inspiring story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wow!!!

This book was amazing! I was an emotional mess, teary eyed and proud all in the same breath. I love the transparency and the energy of the reader. Definitely a must read for everyone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful