Integration was the movement to desegregate public schools and other public facilities that could be shared by all races. In 1875, children of different races were banned completely from attending the same school. The movement to desegregate school systems was a huge step in the civil rights movement because there were still problems with Jim Crow laws. Many public places were segregated such as water fountains, restaurants, and grocery stores. This idea of desegregating public school systems was not approved by everyone, which made it difficult to proceed in the integration between the black and white. The thinking behind integrating was the distance from school and home. Before, a student may be miles away from the nearest school for black
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She tells her readers of her experiences when she and eight others integrated into Central High School. Integrating caused her to to lose all of her past fun activities, because if she was caught out in public, she could be badly injured. One day, Melba was walking home from Little Rock High School, when a stranger asked her if she wanted a ride. If it were not for Marissa, a bully to Melba, she could have been raped. “I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but I knew that it had to be bad. I scratched and kicked and thrashed against him with every ounce of strength I could muster.” This is only the beginning of her long and painful experiences within integration. When Melba went to school for a full day, she could be already worn out. She always had to stay watch to protect herself, “I had been avoiding the cafeteria, eating my sandwich alone in any safe place I could find. The cafeteria was such a huge place, with so many attackers gathered at one time. There were no official looking adults or uniformed Arkansas Guardsmen inside.” Even though she had to experience everything she did, Melba has always seemed to look up over things and be nice and generous to her bullies, like her grandmother and Danny told her. As students would be calling her names, she would just simply smile and say thank you. Her only wish was to make it out of Central High at the end of the school year alive.
She tells her readers of her experiences when she and eight others integrated into Central High School. Integrating caused her to to lose all of her past fun activities, because if she was caught out in public, she could be badly injured. One day, Melba was walking home from Little Rock High School, when a stranger asked her if she wanted a ride. If it were not for Marissa, a bully to Melba, she could have been raped. “I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but I knew that it had to be bad. I scratched and kicked and thrashed against him with every ounce of strength I could muster.” This is only the beginning of her long and painful experiences within integration. When Melba went to school for a full day, she could be already worn out. She always had to stay watch to protect herself, “I had been avoiding the cafeteria, eating my sandwich alone in any safe place I could find. The cafeteria was such a huge place, with so many attackers gathered at one time. There were no official looking adults or uniformed Arkansas Guardsmen inside.” Even though she had to experience everything she did, Melba has always seemed to look up over things and be nice and generous to her bullies, like her grandmother and Danny told her. As students would be calling her names, she would just simply smile and say thank you. Her only wish was to make it out of Central High at the end of the school year alive.