This is an autobiography of a woman who was one of the Little Rock Nine. As a black student, she was chosen to integrate into an all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1950s. The book tells of her harrowing experiences and faith in God's protection. ( )

In 1957, Melba Beals was one of the nine African American students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But her story of overcoming didn’t start–or end–there. While her white schoolmates were planning their senior prom, Melba was facing the business end of a double-barreled shotgun, being threatened with lynching by rope-carrying tormentors, and learning how to outrun white supremacists who were ready to kill her rather than sit beside her in a classroom. Only her faith in God sustained her during her darkest days and helped her become a civil rights warrior, an NBC television news reporter, a magazine writer, a professor, a wife, and a mother.

In I Will Not Fear, Beals takes readers on an unforgettable journey through terror, oppression, and persecution, highlighting the kind of faith needed to survive in a world full of heartbreak and anger. She shows how the deep faith we develop during our most difficult moments is the kind of faith that can change our families, our communities, and even the world. Encouraging and inspiring, Beals’s story offers readers hope that faith is the solution to the pervasive hopelessness of our current culture.

Out January 2018

BIO

“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 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 (Pulaski County). 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 (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) in 1954 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 served as a U.S. marshal in Little Rock, 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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for her senior year of high school.”

Out January 16, 2018

MY THOUGHTS:

I was sent this book in exchange for my honest review.

I can’t even begin to pretend to understand what Melba went through at the hands of racists and bullies! This had to be one of the very worse things a person can endure and survive. In her memoir, Melba resists, fights and endures those around her determined to keep her down, and rises above them all both spiritually and physically.

I grew up with many black families living in our neighborhood and because my parents ran the local recreation department’s events (sports and fairs), our family was well-known in our community. My mother grew up in Montreal, Canada during the 1950’s and remembers a lot of things that happened with integration there. Although never as extreme as it was in the US, racism and anger toward integrating blacks into all-white schools still existed.

She told me of a story when she was a teen when her and her friends had decided to go to the beach. In her circle of friends there were two young men who also happened to be black.

At the beach, she said that the white boys quickly took off their shirts and ran in to the water wearing trunks. However, their black friends were not allowed to exercise the same privilege, but were forced to keep their clothes on because “no white person wants to see black skin,” and when they tried to get in to the water to cool off, other white adults on the beach told them that they were not allowed to swim in the same water used by whites. These young men were also condemned for being with white females. Of course, they were among males and females who were white, but the fact that they dared to go near a white woman wearing a bathing suit (have you seen 1950’s bathing suits?), the white adults would have none of it.

My mother and her friends were older teens and never really cared what color their friends were, they all hung out and all had fun together as a group. So when their two friends were getting grief from these racists, all of them left the water and came to their friends’ aid. She told me that she thought they’d all come to blows, her included because she was at the front of the line (that’s my mother for ya) yelling her head off at the racist idiots.

It was a difficult and ugly time where many of the worse traits human beings are capable of exhibiting were on display. By rallying around their friends, all remained to swim at the beach and the others… they were so overwhelmed by the attitude of the teens, and how others came to their defense too, that they left in fear of their own back seats.

I would love to meet Melba and ask her all sorts of questions. I’d like her to meet my mom too ;). I bet they’d have lots to talk about.
lol

The issue of faith is not the only subject discussed in this book.

There’s a recounting of Dr. Pattillo’s life full of struggles, hardships, racism, sexism, and many endurance tests. She let’s us in to see her perspectives on religion, God, marriage and those around her.

She knew of hardship and struggles early on in her life, their effects taking a large toll on who she saw as herself in the mirror. Her conflicted daily life was brutal and yet, she survived.

Racism and prejudice backed by hateful actions and jibes were a constant in her life and resulted in many cruel injustices committed against her.

Only eight others were with her during this integration into an all white school. It had to be so incredibly difficult. But her perseverance won ground for the Civil Rights movement, paving the way for todays students of all nationalities and color.

Because of her strong faith in God and her unrelenting devotion to Him, Melba made it through this incredible part of her life-time filled with the worst of experiences despite the battle with prejudice, gender inequality, and equal rights.

You really become part of Melba’s emotional state throughout it all, seeing her in every aspect of her fears, actions and their consequences. You’ll experience her anger, her struggles and her doubts. You’ll also see her perspective on what racism is to her, even the not-so-obvious subtleties that she experienced and you too, will become enraged by the idiocy of humans.

If you enjoy reading about history, you’ll like this book, especially in the powerful way it gives a dark view into US history. It’ll teach you to appreciate the freedoms that exist today thanks to those who gave so much, endured so much back then so we could benefit from what their hardships gave us as a result.

As for the spiritual benefits, you’ll enjoy reading how Melba’s faith in God made her capable of surviving this challenge, and made it possible for her to forgive those who had persecuted her. So with history, spiritual embodiment, you also have a story about forgiveness and rising above a past of hate and sadness. You’ll even get pointers on how to deal with bullies.

On the more technical side, the story seemed to jump around a lot in the beginning. However, we are addressing a memoir here and often this does happen. You’re not meant to agree or disagree with the actions of the MC, you’re just meant to bear witness and watch the unfolding events described.

This book is full of courage! It will not be an easy read. All emotions you have will become engaged.

“Grandma India”, had a great influence on her in her early years and that support and wisdom has stayed with her to this day. Melba summarizes each chapter eloquently and I just can’t say enough about this book. ( )

I was not very familiar with the history of the Little Rock Nine nor had I ever heard the name of Melba Pattillo Beals before hearing about this book so I had no idea what to expect when I began to read. As one of the nine African American high school students to be selected to integrate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, Melba's story is one of incredible fortitude and resoluteness in the face of adversity. Her memoirs are filled with awful moments of gross injustice, physical attacks, and even death threats yet she chose to never retaliate in like manner. She stood firm and spoke out when necessary, but she didn't resort to the low behaviors of those who would torment (both verbally and physically) her and her family.

At around 200 pages, this is a short book, but it packs a hefty message. Beals begins the narrative with the story of her birth and shares the struggles her mother endured just to simply get hospital care with her difficult pregnancy. She continues her story with highlights from her life—which are told in mostly chronological order—and brings the reader up through current day. While she does spend a few chapters on the events surrounding the integration of the high school in Little Rock, it is not the main focal point of the book and she moves on to focus primarily on her life following that period. (See her other books, Warriors Don’t Cry and March Forward, Girl, for more about her early years in Arkansas.)

Beals' grandmother, "Grandma India", had a great impact on her in her formative days and that influence has stayed with her to this day. Throughout the book, she references anecdotes about her grandmother and recounts conversations and oft-quoted sayings that Grandma India said. A couple of my favorites are:

"Above all else, God loves you. He has your pictures on His refrigerator just as I do."
"Faith is the consistent trust that God is all powerful and always on your side if you need help."

At the end of each chapter, Beals includes a sentence or two which sums up the theme of that chapter. It's as if she's giving the reader the takeaway or lesson which can be gleaned from her experiences which she's just recounted. One line which appears at the end of chapter 13 stood out to me. Beals writes, "God is our employer, no matter who we see as our earthly boss. At all times we must be aware that we are serving God in our work."

I Will Not Fear is a gripping story of an incredible woman who stood strong through all sorts of adversity. Reading this firsthand account of the despicable ways she was treated by so many was heartrending, but also encouraging and inspirational because of her attitude and faith and reliance on God through it all. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book. This is a very important milestone event in history that should be remembered and learned from. In fact, this book could not have come at a more appropriate time. We seem to be at a crossroads and taking steps back instead of forward. Plus, I thought that the author did a nice job of helping to remind us how our faith can be tested in difficult situations but it will remain strong if not stronger at long as we trust in God.

As I was reading this book, I did feel like I got to know the author. She is someone that I would want to meet in person and listen to more of her stories. Yet, why this book may have talked about faith, it was not preachy. To be honest, there is nothing worse then feeling like you are being preached to when you are not looking for it. This is a nice read. ( )

Despite the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against it, racial segregation in public schools was still prevalent in Little Rock, Arkansas for years afterward. In 1957, nine African American students were chosen to integrate the city’s all-white Central High School. Those students became known as the Little Rock Nine. One of their number, author Melba Pattillo Beals, recounts this matter and more in her memoir, I Will Not Fear: My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith Under Fire.

As the title indicates, this isn’t just an account contained within the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, but it spans much more of the author’s lifetime and experiences. Even so, issues of prejudice and equal (or unequal) rights, including gender inequality, appear frequently throughout this story of adversity, faith, and perseverance.

This isn’t a book about detached, historical “figures” but about people. It’s not a testimony of immediate victories for social justice, or complete accord within the black community. Beals wasn’t even always sure she was doing the right thing by being a part of integration.

The author makes interesting points, including how racism isn’t merely about donning conspicuous white hoods or blatantly calling black people “niggers.” Subtle racism is just as vicious, and also treacherous, particularly when it’s institutionalized or otherwise trickier to call out and combat. Still, one of my biggest takeaways from the book is that when it comes to injustice and other challenges, you have to know when it’s time to hold your peace and simply keep on living, and when it’s time to speak up and fight.

Again, this book is about much more than racism and civil rights, but I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in social justice, Christian memoirs, or both.
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Revell provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review. ( )