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

Carlotta Walls LaNier was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, the first Black children to integrate into a formerly all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is tall, lanky, and light-skinned, like her mother’s side of the family. As a child, LaNier is open-minded and curious about the world. Initially, she does not question certain aspects of Jim Crow-era segregation until she visits New York and sees how Black people operate in the North. She is respectful of and curious about her elders. She spends much of her childhood with her grandparents, various aunts and uncles, and the parents of the other Black children living in her neighborhood. She signs up to attend Central thinking it will give her the best educational opportunity.

As a teen, she is quiet and prefers to slip into the background. She is hurt and surprised when the Little Rock Nine become the subject of violence and ire, first by the white community of Little Rock and then by their children. She doesn’t understand how a handful of students seeking education could cause so much anger and hate. As Faubus’s segregationist policies grow more extreme and LaNier continues through high school, she is less surprised by the racism and unfairness of her experience.