NAACP Analysis in Warriors Don’t Cry

– The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in response to a deadly race riot which broke out in Springfield, Illinois in 1908. In its early years, the organization worked to address the spate of lynchings and other forms of terrorism that black people suffered, particularly in the South. Its first leaders were notable white liberals concerned about civil rights, including John Dewey, Jane Addams, and William Dean Howells, as well as Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard (both descendants of prominent abolitionists). W.E.B. DuBois, whose Niagara Movement for civil rights created a foundation for the NAACP’s social justice work, was its only black executive member at the time of its founding. The NAACP played a key role in the integration of Southern schools.

NAACP Quotes in Warriors Don’t Cry

The Warriors Don’t Cry quotes below are all either spoken by NAACP or refer to NAACP. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Racism and Living Under Jim Crow Theme Icon

Later in The New York Times, Sammy Dean Parker and Kaye Bacon said that as a result of the meeting they now had a new attitude. One headline in the Gazette read: “Two Pupils Tell of Change in Attitude on Segregation.” Sammy Dean Parker was quoted as saying, “The Negro Students don’t want to go to school with us any more than we want to go with them. If you really talk with them, you see their side of it. I think the NAACP is paying them to go.” When I read her statement, I realized Sammy hadn’t understood at all our reason for attending Central High. I wondered where on earth she thought there was enough money to pay for such brutal days as I was enduring [….] What price could anyone set for the joy and laughter and peace of mind I had given up?

Related Characters: Sammy Dean Parker (speaker), Melba Pattillo Beals (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 126-127

Explanation and Analysis:

Melba recalls her response to a newspaper story printed shortly after she and a couple of other members of the Little Rock Nine met with three segregationists at Central High for a roundtable with a Norwegian reporter. During the meeting, Melba was adamant about the black and white students not needing to socialize. Sammy Dean Parker—a girl Melba identifies as a leading troublemaker at the school—uses Melba’s comment to suggest that the black students do not want to integrate at all but have been bribed to do so. Parker’s belief that political organizations from the North were trying to change Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperio

When Mrs. Bates asked, “Do you kids want white meat or dark meat?” I spoke without thinking: “This is an integrated turkey.” The annoyed expression on her face matched the one on Mother’s, letting me know that maybe I should have prepared a speech. The reporters began snickering as they posed a series of questions on turkeys and integration, calling on me by name to answer. My palms began sweating, and my mouth turned dry. I hadn’t meant to put my foot in my mouth. I didn’t want the others to think I was trying to steal the spotlight, but once I had spoken out of turn, “integrated turkey” became the theme. “You’ll live to regret that statement, Melba,” Mother said as we were driving home. I knew she was agonizing over the consequences of my frivolity. She was right. I would suffer.

Related Characters: Mother Lois (speaker), Melba Pattillo Beals (speaker), Daisy Bates (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 137-138

Explanation and Analysis:

Melba and the other members of the Little Rock Nine are having an “official” Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Daisy Bates for the benefit of the media. As Mrs. Bates slices the turkey, Melba makes a bad joke and immediately regrets it. In saying something silly, Melba makes a common mistake. The difference is that she cannot afford to be thoughtless, not only because her statement is recorded and later used by her hecklers to taunt her, but because her position as an integrationist requires her to be always on her best behavior. Just as she must be watchful Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores

NAACP Term Timeline in Warriors Don’t Cry

The timeline below shows where the term NAACP appears in Warriors Don’t Cry. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...She follows news of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955. The following year, the NAACP files suit to make integration begin immediately, despite overwhelming disfavor in Arkansas and Governor Orval... (full context)

...attending a series of meetings with officials in Little Rock’s education system and in the NAACP. She meets Daisy Bates for the first time, a woman who strikes Melba as “very... (full context)

The NAACP calls to let Melba and the other members of the Little Rock Nine know that... (full context)

...Bates’s house to meet with the press. Numerous “very dignified and important-looking men” from the NAACP sit in her living room, including Thurgood Marshall whom Melba recognizes from the newspaper reports... (full context)

The only place that will serve the Little Rock Nine and the members of the NAACP is “a greasy joint” in a “shabby section” of Little Rock. Thurgood Marshall sits with... (full context)

...at Daisy Bates’s house. The Little Rock Nine are split between two cars driven by NAACP officials. They cannot take the usual route to Central due to police warnings that segregationists... (full context)

...Pattillo family watches Governor Faubus deliver a statement from his Sea Island, Georgia retreat, urging NAACP leaders and school officials to allow a “cooling-off period” before resuming integration. In response, President... (full context)

...do not want to go to school with them but are being paid by the NAACP, a comment which strikes Melba as absurd. (full context)

...stay in her office. The students also have more meetings with Daisy Bates and the NAACP to discuss their problems. (full context)

Passive vs. Violent Resistance Theme Icon

Minnijean is officially expelled after a forty-minute hearing. NAACP officials arrange for her to attend a private New York high school called New Lincoln... (full context)

...they stay in suites at luxurious hotels and meet celebrities. In Cleveland, they receive the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal. (full context)

...Rock’s request to halt integration, delaying it for another three and a half years. The NAACP begins another round of appeals to get the remaining seven students back into Central. By... (full context)

Relationships, Romance, and Empathy Theme Icon

...families with a child at Central move out of Little Rock due to mounting pressure. NAACP officials send an announcement to chapters across the country to find families who will provide... (full context)

It is not until September 1960 that the NAACP succeeds in getting Central to integrate once again. Only two black students are permitted entry—Carlotta... (full context)

NAACP Term Analysis

NAACP Quotes in Warriors Don’t Cry

Chapter 11 Quotes

NAACP Term Timeline in Warriors Don’t Cry