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

This United States Army light infantry division is dispatched to Little Rock by President Eisenhower to protect the Little Rock Nine from the segregationist mob and the Arkansas National Guard. When news of their deployment breaks, LaNier’s Uncle J.W., a WWII veteran, calls her to tell her that “the Screaming Eagles,” as they are nicknamed, “were renowned for their heroism during the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge in World War II” (94). Eisenhower puts one of their commanders, Major General Edwin Walker, in charge of the Arkansas National Guard, which previously followed Faubus’s orders. One thousand troops are dispatched to Little Rock to protect the nine and keep the mob in check.

The 101st is not necessarily personally supportive of the nine’s fight. Before the nine arrive in school on the day the 101st arrives, General Walker talks to Central’s white students in the auditorium. He tells them to peacefully pursue their studies and that his soldiers “are here because they have been ordered to be here” (97). When the nine are harassed and attacked in the halls, “too much just seemed to escape their ears and eyes” (100). While some of the nine grew close to their assigned soldier, like Melba and Danny, LaNier says that “while the soldiers were there to make sure the nine of us stayed alive, for anything short of that, I was pretty much on my own” (100).