Melba Pattillo Beals, PhD
Guest
Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals’ life is defined by her commitment to equality for all and activism in the interests of social justice. In 1957, Melba Pattillo was one of nine African-American high school students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Under protection of the 101st Airborne Division of the Army, dispatched by President Eisenhower, Melba and 8 other African-American youths integrated the previously all-white Central High School.
The “Little Rock Nine” defied mobs, death threats and physical attacks. Armed only with the practices of peaceful resistance, each day they attended school was a physical and psychological trial. Their endurance, born of a desire to remedy social injustice and seek equality in education was the first, heroic salvo in the battle for desegration of our public educational system.
Dr. Beals told the story of her time at Central High in her best selling memoir, “Warriors Don’t Cry”. This inspiring history is part of the social studies curriculum for middle and high schools across the country.
In 1999, Congress awarded Dr. Beals and her Little Rock Nine companions the Congressional Gold Medal — the nation’s highest honor — for their contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
Little Rock
Her Central High experiences ignited in Melba a lifelong passion for education. After Little Rock, she moved to California where she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. She pursued graduate studies in New York and was awarded a certificate in journalism and media from the Ford Foundation, and Columbia University, recognizing her as one of 32 minority journalists in the country who integrated the Media.
Dr. Beals’ successful career in journalism and public relations, included holding posts as an on-camera television reporter for KQED’s Newsroom, as an NBC-TV news reporter, and as a radio news talk show host for KGO, ABC radio, San Francisco. She has written articles for People, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine.
(Read more at www.melbapattillobeals.com)