Friday, April 19, 2024, 12:55 PM
Site: mr-anderson.com
Course: mr-anderson.com (mr-anderson.com)
Glossary: Author Biographies
B
Beals, Melba Pattillo | ||
---|---|---|
As a teenager, Melba Beals was caught up in a
civil rights firestorm. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
decision, Beals was hopeful that she could attend the prestigious
Little Rock Central High School. When a federal judge ordered
Centtal High to desegregate in 1957 the NAACP recruited Beals and
other black teens for this difficult task. Angry mobs blocked the
black students from entering the high school, resulting in a
three-week standoff between students and segregationists. President
Eisenhower had to send troops to escort the black students into the
school and force integration. Even with this protection, Beals and
the other black students had to endure slurs, fights, and physical
abuse as part of the first integrated class at Central High. In a
later interview about her experiences, Beals noted that she wanted
to attend Central for the educational opportunities, not to be the
first to integrate. As a result other experience, Beals learned to
relate to the media and pursued a career in journalism. After
receiving a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University,
Beals worked as a news reporter in California. Her novels
Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing
Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock Central High
School and White Is a State
of Mind were influential works describing the desegregation
of public schools. In 1999 the nine students who integrated LRHS
were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the
highest civilian honor in the United States. |
C
Cohen, Warren | ||
---|---|---|
After receiving a BA from Connecticut College
in 1989, Warren Cohen joined the research staff of Common Cause magazine. He became a
researcher for U.S. News and World
Report in 1990 and later reported on regional issues for
that publication. Cohen worked for U.S News until 2000, when he became a
senior news producer for the VH1 cable network. He co-wrote
23 Days of Terror, which
depicts the Washington, D.C. sniper shootings, with fellow
U.S. News writer Angie Cannon. |
D