Her mother, Lois Marie Pattillo, was one of the first black graduates of the University of Arkansas in 1954 who worked as a middle school English teacher.

[2] The nine black students faced mobs that forced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne Division to protect their lives after the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, used National Guard troops to block the students' entry to the school.

Beals attended San Francisco State University, earning a bachelor's degree.

Beals' book Warriors Don't Cry chronicles the events of 1957 during the Little Rock crisis, based partly on diaries she kept during the period.

[5] To date, Warriors Don't Cry continues to be a #1 Amazon bestseller in the "Teen & Young Adult Nonfiction on Prejudice" genre.

[6] In 1959, the NAACP awarded the Spingarn Medal to Beals and to the other members of the Little Rock Nine, together with civil rights leader Daisy Bates, who had advised the group during their struggles at Central High.