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The Little Rock Nine
A Foundational Civil Rights Moment.
In 1957 Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals and 8 other students simply wanted to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, three years after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Brown v. Board of Education.
Jim Crow stood in the way.
The Klan stood in the way.
The State National Guard stood in the way.
Gov. Orville Faubus stood in the way.
However, they persisted.
They changed American history
along the way.
It is a Master Class in Courage.
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The Little Rock Nine Chapter of the PBS Series “Eyes on the Prize.”
Narrated by Julian Bond.
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Upcoming Luncheon Society Gatherings.
Four Time Space Shuttle Astronaut Tom Jones
with his book, "Space Shuttle Stories."
Experience all 135 NASA space shuttle missions ever flown through the words of the astronauts themselves in this spectacularly illustrated volume NASA's space shuttle was the world's first reusable spacecraft, accomplishing many firsts and inspiring generations across its 30-year lifespan as America's iconic spaceship. In Space Shuttle Stories, shuttle astronaut Tom Jones interviewed more than 130 fellow astronauts for personal vignettes from each mission, complemented by their written accounts for all 135 space shuttle missions, from Columbia's maiden flight in 1981 to the final launch of Atlantis in 2011. The book is a major contribution to the historical record of a momentous era of spaceflight.
March 22
Also, Our Very Modest Annual Dues.
If you need to handle this, please do. To learn more--
https://conta.cc/41zueyi
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The Luncheon Society ™
welcomes
Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals
Member Little Rock Nine
Congressional Gold Medal Winner
Author
Warriors Don't Cry
A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate
Little Rock’s Central High School.
Join us for a conversation about a pivotal moment
in the struggle for Civil Rights.
Thursday February 29, 2024
12 Noon Pacific
3 PM Eastern
Everybody will purchase a copy of Melba Pattillo Beals's memoir "Warriors Don't Cry" as part of the Zoom call. Details Below.
Zoom gathering.
The Zoom link will be sent to you
upon RSVP.
PS: Autographed books make wonderful gifts.
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The Luncheon Society Zoom Event
Dear Bob,
We are so pleased that Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals has returned to the Luncheon Society to talk about the incredible journey of breaking down the racial barriers of segregation--and the absolute courage it took just to enter Central High School.
RSVP is you wish to join us.
Note: This Zoom gathering will be recorded and eventually uploaded on the Luncheon Society website.
To RSVP : Bob.McBarton@comcast.net
Best,
Bob McBarton
Executive Director
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Civil Rights pioneer
Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals
returns to The Luncheon Society.
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In this essential autobiographical account by one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most powerful figures, Melba Pattillo Beals of the Little Rock Nine explores not only the oppressive force of racism, but the ability of young people to change ideas of race and identity.
In 1957, well before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other teenagers became iconic symbols for the Civil Rights Movement and the dismantling of Jim Crow in the American South as they integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education.
Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob’s rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down.
More
The "Fresh Air" interview is a good place to begin.
NPR Fresh Air 'They Didn't Want Me There': Remembering The Terror Of School Integration with Melba Pattillo Beals
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/15/577371750/they-didn-t-want-me-there-remembering-the-terror-of-school-integration
Spark Notes “Warriors Don’t Cry”
https://bit.ly/49q7ZOl
Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
NBC Interview Melba Pattillo Beals reflection on six decades later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGKIquT7vL0
How the Little Rock 9 Impacted the Civil Rights Movement | The American Presidency w/ Bill Clinton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Dn3tOmyKk
Reflections On Race From the Little Rock Nine/LBJ Library Conversation (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryPAhfa1fMU
60 Years On, A Look Back at the Little Rock Nine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym8rdtq-KBE
The Entire 6 part PBS Series of “Eyes of the Prize” can be streamed on “Max." Here is the trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGVL9d_ibhw
Only one question: Are you in?
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Zoom Luncheon Society
The Zoom Luncheon Society gathering with Civil Rights Pioneer Melba Pattillo Beals will take place on Thursday February 29, 2024. will begin at 12 Noon Pacific (3 PM Eastern) and will run for a about 90 minutes.
Zoom link
Once we confirm your participation, we will send over the link for the Zoom call.
The Price.
Everybody who comes will purchase a copy of "Warriors Don't Cry." I will send a signed bookplate after the gathering.
Once you RSVP, I will send over a form for the book purchase. You will make the purchase through Amazon or your local bookstore, and I will send over the link. Luncheon Society members get the complimentary signed bookplate as part of their annual membership.
Where to Park.
You park yourself in front of your computer, of course.
Our Very Modest Annual Dues.
If you need to handle this, please do. To learn more--
https://conta.cc/41zueyi
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Biography
Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central Rock High School in 1957. The world watched as they braved constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school. She later recounted this harrowing year in her book titled Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School. Melba Pattillo was born on December 7, 1941, in Little Rock. Beals grew up surrounded by family members who knew the importance of an education. Her mother, Lois Marie Pattillo, PhD, was one of the first Black graduates of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and was a high school English teacher at the time of the crisis. Her father, Howell Pattillo, worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. She had one brother, Conrad, who later served as a US Marshall in Little Rock and as a trooper with the Arkansas State Police , and they all lived with her grandmother, India Peyton. While attending all-Black Horace Mann High School in Little Rock, she knew her educational opportunities were not equal to her white counterparts’ opportunities at Central High. In response to this inequality, Pattillo volunteered to transfer to the all-white Central High School with eight other Black students from Horace Mann and Dunbar Junior High School . The Little Rock Nine, as they came to be known, faced daily harassment from white students. Beals later recounted that the soldier assigned to protect her instructed her, “In order to get through this year, you will have to become a soldier. Never let your enemy know what you are feeling.” Beals took the soldier’s advice, and, while the rest of the school year remained turbulent, all but one student, Minnijean Brown, was able to finish the school year. Barred from entering Central High the next year when the city’s schools were closed, Pattillo moved to Santa Rosa, California, to live with a sponsoring family who were members of the for her senior year of high school. In 1961, Pattillo married John Beals. They had one daughter but divorced after ten years of marriage. She subsequently adopted two boys. Beals graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in journalism and earned an MA in the same field from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She has worked as a communications consultant, a motivational speaker, and as a reporter for San Francisco’s public television station and for the Bay Area’s NBC affiliate. Beals was the first of the Little Rock Nine to write a book based on her experiences at Central High. Published in 1994, Warriors Don’t Cry gives a first-hand account of the trials Beals encountered from segregationists and racist students. The book was named the American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book for 1995 and won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award that same year. White is a State of Mind, her 1999 sequel to Warriors Don’t Cry, follows Beals from her senior year in high school to her college and family days in California. Beals was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the NAACP in 1958, along with other members of the Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates, their mentor. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. Beals lives in the San Francisco area and works as an author and public speaker. In 2018, she published two books: I Will Not Fear: My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith under Fire and March Forward Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine. Commissioned by the Oxford American magazine and first created as a septet based upon Beals’s words in Warriors Don’t Cry, the piece No Tears Suite was performed in 2017 at the sixtieth anniversary of the Central High desegregation; the six-movement piece was expanded with orchestral parts for a 2019 premiere performance at the Mosaic Templers Cultural Center that included jazz musicians alongside Arkansas Symphony Orchestra members.
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The Luncheon Society™
began as a series of private luncheons and dinners that take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Boston. Since the Pandemic, we have moved to Zoom. Discussions center on politics, art, science, film, culture, and whatever else is on our mind. Think of us as "Adult Drop in Daycare." We've been around since 1996 and we're purposely understated. These gatherings takes place around a large table, where you interact with the main guest and conversation becomes end result. There are no rules, very little structure, and the gatherings happen when they happen. Join us when you can.
This is our 29th season.
Hope you can join us.
Bob McBarton
bob.mcbarton@comcast.net
The Luncheon Society
cell 925.216.9578
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