A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School

As someone who loves history, I often find myself wanting to know more about certain events than what is actually presented in a history text. Reading first hand accounts of moments in history generally make the history come alive in a way that dry facts simply cannot. Prior to reading A Mighty Long Way, I knew about the Little Rock Nine. I learned about them and racial segregation in high school. In college, as a political science major, I learned more about them when taking classes that dealt with civil rights. I knew that there was a ton of controversy surrounding the desegregation of Central High, but I didn't know anything about the African American students who bravely stood in the face of rabid racism and hatred. Carlotta Walls La Nier takes you on a journey in this book. She lets us see what life was like for an African American living in the deep south and dealing with an racist culture. I am amazed at the bravery the author showed in the face of terrible hatred. It is an inspiring story of how she persevered in an hostile environment during a tumultuous period of American history. This book would be great in an American History class that deals with Civil Rights. There is nothing quite like having first hand accounts of pivotal moments in history. I think this book would be a wonderful addition to American History curriculums in high school and college courses. An account like this is far more valuable than the standard few paragraphs or pages that you usually encounter about this moment in our nation's history.

This book touched me deeply, and at times I had to stop reading because of the tears in my eyes as I read this very personal tale of a black teen-ager integrating Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957. It was all the more poignant because I remember these events, and I also remember reading about the ordeal of one of the nine teen-agers, Minnijean, in a magazine picture story at the time. I remember reading that the white kids threw hot soup on Minnijean, and this was just one of many indignities that these young civil right pioneers had to endure. Minnijean was later expelled for fighting back against her harassers. These teen-agers had gone where they were not wanted, but where they had a right to be. The Supreme Court declared that "separate but equal" did not satisfy the law; separate was inherently unequal. All-white schools had to admit black students. I am a white woman, a few years younger than the author, who grew up in Flint, Michigan. Flint was a segregated city and, in the early 1950s, my family moved from our home, along with all of our neighbors, because a black family had moved onto our block. This was mainly instigated by the real estate people who would move in a black family and then urge the white people to sell their homes (this was known as "block busting"). I never met any black people until high school, when I volunteered at a home for the aged, and worked beside the kitchen staff who were all black. In those days, there were black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods, and segregation in housing and schools was the norm. I wonder how many younger people really understand this? What stood out for me in reading this book was the innocence of Carlotta as she quietly decided that she would take the opportunity offered by the Brown vs. Board of Eduction Supreme Court decision, and the emphasis on getting a good education imparted to her by her parents. She was not looking to be an example, a pioneer, or a symbol. She just wanted to go to the best school available, and that was Central. The fact that it was also close to home for her is a bit different from the situation we had in the North, where the black neighborhoods tended to be distant from where white people lived, and there was not much mingling of black and white. In the North, school integration was accomplished mainly with busing - putting black kids on a bus each morning and taking them to the white school, and sending some of the white kids to the black school. I well remember the many signs in windows in suburban Detroit areas reading "This Family Will Not be Bused." The court had ordered cross-district busing because Detroit was a nearly all-black city; there were too few white kids in the city for Detroit-only busing to accomplish much. Cross-district busing never happened though and Detroit schools have been nearly all black ever since, although Detroit's suburbs have achieved substantial integration. Sometimes the kids in the author's neighbo

In 1957, nine courageous African American students enrolled in Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas as part of an effort to implement the Supreme Court's landmark desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The story of the Little Rock Nine, the abuse they endured, the endless legal machinations, the hostile crowds and mobs who attempted to block their entry has been told many times in print and in the media. But this new book, "A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School" offers an irreplaceably intimate account of Little Rock. The author, Carlotta Walls Lanier, was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. She enrolled in Central as a sophomore in 1957-1958, studied elsewhere in 1958-1959 when Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus closed the High Schools in Little Rock, and completed her senior year and graduated in 1959-1960. Walls was one of only three members of the Little Rock Nine to graduate. In this book, Walls, with the assistance of editor and reporter Lisa Frazer Page, tells her story. Simplicity and sincerity come through in Walls's memoir. She does not dwell abstractly on the legal and political maneuvers that would be found in a historical account of the Little Rock confrontation. Walls focuses instead on what happened to her and to her family and friends. She allows the reader to see her feelings, fears, and hopes, and how they changed over the years. This is a deeply personal account. Walls sets the stage with an effective discussion of her family and of her decision to attend Little Rock Central. She captures the fear of running the gauntlet of a large mob, even after President Eisenhower called out the Federal troops. Most compellingly, Walls describes the torment she endured in the school from many of the students, the spitting, violence, and name-calling. I came to understand what Walls in a spirit of quiet heroism had to suffer. During Walls's senior year at Central, the family home was dynamited. Walls's father was brought in for questioning and beaten by the police. A young friend of the family was convicted of the crime, and Walls argues persuasively that he was innocent. She persevered through graduation, and left Little Rock immediately upon receiving her diploma. Walls experienced a difficult time in settling down and finding a path in her life at Michigan State and then in Denver. Ultimately she graduated from college, made a happy marriage, had two children, and established a successful career in real estate. For nearly 30 years, Walls would not talk about Little Rock or disclose that she had been one of the Little Rock Nine, even to her husband. With reunions of the Little Rock Nine in 1987 and with the passage of time, Walls became more open with herself and with others in discussing her youthful experience at Little Rock Central. Her discussions in the book of her changes in attitude with time, from the events of 1957-1960, to the long intervening years o

A Mighty Long Way is one of the best books I've received through the Vine program. Carlotta Walls was one of the original Little Rock 9: the first nine teenagers who dared to enroll at Little Rock's premier high school. She describes her experience in a simple, straightforward style, which ironically makes her story even more shocking than it might otherwise. It's hard to imagine many teenagers who would handle themselves as well as Carlotta did. Every day was torture. She didn't just dodge insults; she dealt with physical harassment. Kids would knock her books over, then kick her when she bent to get them. A female student stepped on her heels, drawing blood. Through it all, Carlotta held firm. She didn't cry. Occasionally she reported instances of misconduct. But mostly, after the troopers left, she was on her own. Carlotta's family supported her decision at great personal sacrifice. The community helped; I hadn't realized how much the NAACP was involved. The school kept closing when the governor would rather have no schools than integrated schools. Carlotta and her friends sacrificed a large part of their teenage years. Forbidden to attend after-school activities, she joined some events at Mann, were African-Aemricans were welcome. The most moving part of the book comes at the end, when the Little Rock 9 finally get recognition. Carlotta returns for an anniversary in Little Rock, where the president and Mike Huckabee (a very different governor from Faubus, she notes) hold the doors while she enters Central High. Later she watches Barack Obama win the election. Because she bravely walked up the steps of Central High, she says, now Barack and his family can walk up the White Hosue steps. It's hard to believe the Little Rock events took place in 1957 - just over 50 years ago. When Carlotta returned for her reunion, the student body president of Central High School is African American. A Mighty Long Way is hard to put down. It's a painful story yet Carlotta never loses optimism. She gets breaks (especially after her first year, when she wins a scholarship to camp). She travels and meets some very famous people. Because you had to be truly outstanding to get into those college (especially if you were African-American), Carlotta makes some pretty amazing friends, from pro football players to politicians. What would happened if the Little Rock 9 had refused to play their part? What if they had all escaped to California, New York or the Midwest? Central would eventually have been integrated, but the process would have taken years. All nine students have enjoyed exceptional success. This book should be required reading for America history classes in high sc hool and college.