It’s been more than sixty years since that racially charged day when nine black students, protected by several national guardsmen, integrated the all-white Central High School. Most of us have only seen pictures and archive video of this iconic event in 1957, but Melba Pattillo Beals lived it. At just fifteen she was one of nine African American students to integrate Central High School in segregated Little Rock, Arkansas. Only her faith saw her through the hatred, anger and death threats she endured. Beals remembers that day with clarity. She writes about the journey of faith that gave her strength and courage to take on what must have seemed like the whole world. “I Will Not Fear,” is her book that lives out for us all, Psalm 23.
