Book Review - I Will Not Fear by Melba Pattillo Beals

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did.  The author's participation in the integration of Little Rock was fascinating, and this was the strongest part of the book, but it is only the beginning.  I wonder if her memoir Warriors Don't Cry would be more engaging for me.  Her story of severe, life-threatening racism is valuable and eye-opening, especially for someone of my age who always went to school with children of other races and thought it nothing unusual to have them over to our house or to go to theirs.
That said, as a story, it was a little disjointed after the first couple of chapters.  It was more a collection of memories, and no other people in her stories became fully "alive" to the reader.  And I came to have a real problem with her attitudes toward education over marriage about halfway through the book, when she kept stressing her mom's mantra of "Education lasts forever, but husbands are temporary."
Overall, I think she has been an important eye witness to a truly troubling era of our history, and she has certainly had an unusual amount of trials but has learned to rely on her faith to help her through.

I received this book from the publisher, Revell, for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.