When Melba was five, she wanted to go on a merry-go-round, but the carnie denied her access and chastised her. She quickly “...learned that there was to be no space for me on that merry-go-round no matter how many saddles stood empty (Warriors Don’t Cry 8). Notwithstanding, Melba realized at such an early age that her future life was going to be tough with all of this discrimination against African Americans. When Melba grew older, she began to put her plan into action: she signed her name to integrate at Central High. When Melba got accepted into Central High, she was enjoying herself in Cincinnati where everyone was treated equally. Melba did not want to move back to Arkansas. Even though Melba did not want to go to Central High anymore, she wanted to take charge and integrate Central High even if it was the last thing she did. When Melba eventually made her first steps into Central High, she was bullied. “...Boys bumped straight into me. One of them kicked me in the shins so hard I fell to the floor. A second kick was delivered to the stomach” (Warriors Don’t Cry 147-148). Even though Melba was chastised by her own peers, she still kept on persevering to reach her goal. Melba eventually made some progress during her year at Central High. In her diary, she wrote that several people were treating her benevolently. A girl …show more content…
When she saw children with hollow chests, round-shoulders and some who lost their hands and fingers due to mill accidents, Mother Jones was insistent on enacting a change (Pinkerton Josephson). She wanted children to work in innocuous conditions. Accordingly, on July 7, 1903, Mother Jones gathered nearly 300 laborers of all ages to march 125 miles to meet President Roosevelt in Sagamore Hill (Pinkerton Josephson). By doing this, Mother Jones was hoping to convince President Roosevelt to pass a bill involving Child Labor Rights. When Mother Jones was marching to Trenton, New Jersey “...police told the group they couldn’t enter the city” (Pinkerton Josephson). Mother Jones refused to take ‘no’ for an answer, so she asked the police to stay with them for lunch. Afterwards, the police let Mother Jones pass. Even though “... Mother Jones reached President Roosevelt, the secretary came out saying that President Roosevelt feels that child labor was an issue for individual states to solve” (Pinkerton Josephson). Mother Jones couldn’t press the case further and went home empty-handed. However, thirty-five years after the march of the mill children (in 1938), the federal government finally passed a child labor law (Pinkerton