le period because in 1954 Brown vs. board of education said, “ Separate is not equal”, and thus began this whole event of the south to integrate, and not to integrate, and this whole almost warring like environment or atmosphere- where in most cases white people said, “ NO, we’re not going to integrate. We don’t care what the Supreme Court says”. And federal court judges said, “ Yes, you will integrate”. And so then everybody said, “Well how can we do it with as little as possible? How can we stingily integrate?” And that is what they did in Little Rock. They stingily agreed to integrate.The main theme of the book was racial tension. The white folks treated the black folks like they were dirt. Even older white folks treated the younger black children like dirt. I do not understand how any adult could hit a child, especially because of their color. One instance that really bothered me was when a white man almost raped Melba because she was black. It was in 1954, immediately after Brown vs. the Board of Education decision had came down. After that she said she was going to read the newspaper because she wanted to know when white men got angry. And sometimes she had to spend her own nickel for it. Another theme throughout the book could be determination. The nine children were determined to carry out integration. They did not give up. Some older black folks in the neighborhood faulted the nine children for the actual attempt of integration. They claimed that it made it harder than it already was to be black and living in Little Rock. For example, Melba’s neighbor Mrs. Floyd said to her after the first day at Central, “ Now You’ve had your lesson. You don’t have to go back to that awful school anymore.” Not only were they catching hell from the whites, they were catching just as much from the blacks as well. After the first day in the school being taun...
