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

Educational integration is portrayed as both painful and necessary: Traditionally white schools like Central have more academic and extracurricular resources and opportunities afforded to their students than Black schools like Dunbar. For LaNier, who excels in academics and sports, this is a major draw of her transfer. However, schools like Dunbar are run by highly qualified teachers who are deeply invested in their students’ well-being and education because of the dedication to Collective Care in Black Communities.

The 1896 Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that segregation was constitutional if institutions were “separate but equal,” but this was never the case in practice. Dunbar has a fraction of the space, classrooms, money, teacher pay, resources, and amenities that Central has. Among Black schools, even this makes Dunbar an excellent school: It “attracted black students from all over Arkansas who stayed with relatives to attend” (37), rather than attending the “one-room shacks” that constituted schools for Black children in much of the South. Despite this, when the opportunity to attend Central arrives, LaNier thinks that “Central clearly seemed the better choice” (45). Even though Dunbar is an excellent school, separate is not equal, and even the best Black schools receive less funding, resources, and opportunities than white schools.