A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School - LaNier, Carlotta Walls Walls; Page, Lisa Frazier Review & Synopsis

 Synopsis

When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the "Little Rock Nine," as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America.

For Carlotta and the eight other children, simply getting through the door of this admired academic institution involved angry mobs, racist elected officials, and intervention by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to escort the Nine into the building. But entry was simply the first of many trials. Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an engrossing memoir that is a testament not only to the power of a single person to make a difference but also to the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.

Review

 Book Description 

 When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the "Little Rock Nine," as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America.

 

Descended from a line of proud black landowners and businessmen, Carlotta was raised to believe that education was the key to success. She embraced learning and excelled in her studies at the black schools she attended throughout the 1950s. With Brown v. Board of Education erasing the color divide in classrooms across the country, the teenager volunteered to be among the first black students--of whom she was the youngest--to integrate nearby Central High School, considered one of the nation's best academic institutions.

 

But for Carlotta and her eight comrades, simply getting through the door was the first of many trials. Angry mobs of white students and their parents hurled taunts, insults, and threats. Arkansas's governor used the National Guard to bar the black students from entering the school. Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to establish order and escort the Nine into the building. That was just the start of a heartbreaking three-year journey for Carlotta, who would see her home bombed, a crime for which her own father was a suspect and for which a friend of Carlotta's was ultimately jailed--albeit wrongly, in Carlotta's eyes. But she persevered to the victorious end: her graduation from Central.

 

Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an inspiring, thoroughly engrossing memoir that is not only a testament to the power of one to make a difference but also of the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.

 

Complete with compelling photographs of the time, A Mighty Long Way shines a light on this watershed moment in civil rights history and shows that determination, fortitude, and the ability to change the world are not exclusive to a few special people but are inherent within us all.

  

A Look Inside A Mighty Long Way  

  Click on thumbnails for larger images  

 

<table> <tbody> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>The "Testament" memorial, which features life-size bronze statutes of each of the Little Rock Nine.

(Courtesy of the author)</td> <td>I had six of these prized admission tickets for my closest family members to attend my graduation from Central. 

(Courtesy of the author)</td> <td>Little Rock Central High School, which the National Institute of Architects called "America's Most Beautiful School" when it was built in 1927. 

(Courtesy of the author)</td> <td>From right: Ernest Green, Gloria Ray, Jane Hill (standing behind Gloria) and I, face the National Guard on Sept. 4, 1957, on our first attempt to enter Central; Jane never returned to Central after that day. 

(Will Counts Collection: Indiana University Archives)</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 

 

Carlotta Walls LaNier attended Michigan State University and graduated from Colorado State College-now the University of Northern Colorado, on whose board of trustees she sits. After working for the YWCA, she founded her own real estate brokerage firm, LaNier and Company. A sought-after lecturer, LaNier speaks across the country, and she has received the Congressional Medal of Honor and two honorary doctorate degrees. She is the mother of two children, Whitney and Brooke, and lives in Englewood, Colorado, with her husband, Ira.

Lisa Frazier Page, an editor and award-winning reporter at The Washington Post, is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. A graduate of New Orleans's Dillard University, Page holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She grew up in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband. They have four children.

A Mighty Long Way (Adapted for Young Readers)

Follow the story of Carlotta Walls LaNier, who in 1957 at the age of fourteen was one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Little Rock Central High School and became known as the Little Rock Nine. At fourteen years old, Carlotta Walls was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. The journey to integration in a place deeply against it would not be not easy. Yet Carlotta, her family, and the other eight students and their families answered the call to be part of the desegregation order issued by the US Supreme Court in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. As angry mobs protested, the students were escorted into Little Rock Central High School by escorts from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been called in by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower to ensure their safety. The effort needed to get through that first year in high school was monumental, but Carlotta held strong. Ultimately, she became the first Black female ever to walk across the Central High stage and receive a diploma. The Little Rock Nine experienced traumatic and life-changing events not only as a group but also as individuals, each with a distinct personality and a different story. This is Carlotta's courageous story.

The Little Rock Nine experienced traumatic and life-changing events not only as a group but also as individuals, each with a distinct personality and a different story. This is Carlotta's courageous story."

A Mighty Long Way

“A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School “Provides important context for an important moment in America’s history.”—Associated Press When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine,” as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America. For Carlotta and the eight other children, simply getting through the door of this admired academic institution involved angry mobs, racist elected officials, and intervention by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to escort the Nine into the building. But entry was simply the first of many trials. Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an engrossing memoir that is a testament not only to the power of a single person to make a difference but also to the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.

“A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School “Provides important ..."

Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture [3 volumes]

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 Lanier , Carlotta Walls with Page , Lisa Frazier . 2009. A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . New York: One World Books. Little Rock Central High: 50 Years Later. 2007. DVD. Directed by Brent Renaud ..."

Today the World Is Watching You

On September 4, 1957, nine African American teenagers made their way toward Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They didn t make it very far. Armed soldiers of the Arkansas National Guard blocked most of them at the edge of campus. The three students who did make it onto campus faced an angry mob. White citizens spit at them and shouted ugly racial slurs. No black students entered Central that day. And if the angry mob had its way, black children would never attend school with white children. But the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1955 that school segregation that is, separate schools for black children and white children was unconstitutional. The Court ordered the nation s schools to be integrated. Nowhere was that process more hateful and more horrific than in Little Rock. Eventually, the nine students did make it into Central High under the protection of army soldiers. Once inside Central, they faced a never-ending torrent of abuse from white students. But the nine students persevered. Their courage inspired the growing movement for African American civil rights.

 The Little Rock Nine and the Fight for School Integration, 1957 Kekla Magoon. Advameg. “Thurgood Marshall. ... LaNier , Carlotta Walls . A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . With Lisa Frazier Page ."

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For more on Carlotta Walls LaNier : LaNier , Carlotta Walls , and Page , Lisa Frazier . A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . New York: One World/Ballantine, 2009. www.littlerock9.com ..."

Little Rock Girl 1957

Nine African American students made history when they defied a governor and integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957. It was the photo of one of the nine trying to enter the school a young girl being taunted, harassed and threatened by an angry mob that grabbed the worlds attention and kept its disapproving gaze on Little Rock, Arkansas. In defiance of a federal court order, Governor Orval Faubus called in the National Guard to prevent the students from entering all white Central High School. The plan had been for the students to meet and go to school as a group on September 4, 1957. But one student, Elizabeth Eckford, didnt hear of the plan and tried to enter the school alone. A chilling photo by newspaper photographer Will Counts captured the sneering expression of a girl in the mob and made history. Years later Counts snapped another photo, this one of the same two girls, now grownup, reconciling in front of Central High School.

 LaNier , Carlotta Walls , with Lisa Frazier Page . A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . New York: One World Ballantine Books, 2009. Walker, Paul Robert. Remember Little Rock : The Time, the People, ..."

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 Carlotta Walls LaNier , Thelma Mothershed, and Elizabeth Eckford, members of the Little Rock Nine, all completed ... Walls LaNier and Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School , ..."

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Memoirs of leading participants include Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (1962; repr. ... Don't Cry (New York: Pocket Books, 1994); Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice ..."

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... and Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (One World/Ballantine Books, 2009). A welcome new addition to the literature of desegregation in Little ..."

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2 For more on the Little Rock High School integration crisis, see Elizabeth Jacoway, Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock , ... Carlotta Walls LaNier and Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High ..."

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... 1957; Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (New York: David McKay, 1962), 123, 131–32; Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (New York: One ..."

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 LaNier , Carlotta Walls , with Lisa Frazier Page . A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . New York: Ballantine Books, 2009. Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography ofa Race."

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She also collaborated with Carlotta Walls LaNier , the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, on LaNier's 2009 memoir, A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School . Page holds a master's degree from ..."

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 PAGE # PAGE # 139 The Tuskegee Airmen On the Negro Factories Corporation. ... and Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page , A Mighty Long Way : My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (New York: One World/Ballantine ..."