Originally published more than a decade ago, this searing account of the 1957 integration of Central High School in Little Rock--an ALA Nonfiction Book of the Year--is written by one of the black teenagers chosen to become warriors on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.
An innocent teenager.

An unexpected hero.

In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, "Brown v. Board of Education," Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School.

Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down.

This is her remarkable story.