A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls Lanier
By Dera Williams • Dec 17th, 2009 • Category: Book Review 2009 •
Email This Post
• 
Print This Post
I read several of the Little Rock Nine memoirs in the past, but the most recent on the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas by Carlotta Walls Lanier, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School, was like looking into the history of these events for the first time. Part memoir, part historical and social commentary, the youngest of the nine at 14 years-old, Walls Lanier was forever changed by the events that occurred in 1957. Raised in a loving, middle-class home, she was supported by her extended family, church and community in her quest for unconditional educational. But she was so traumatized by the ordeal that it took 30 years to come to grips of it all.
Walls Lanier left Little Rock in 1960 and moved to Denver, Colorado, as did her immediate family after the bombing of her home. She was a bright, ambitious, intelligent young lady, who just wanted access to the best education possible to secure the future she felt she deserved, yet there were thousands of people who tried to take that basic right away from her. And why? Because they were threatened by the color of her skin and threatened that their way of life as they knew it would be changed. Arkansas’ Governor Faubus was determined to keep the six girls and three boys from entering Central High by calling out the National Guard. Angry white parents taunted, threw things, berated these youngsters, their faces full of hate. But Daisy Bates, a journalist and activist who was born in my mother’s hometown of Huttig, was unafraid of standing up to the white establishment that dared violate these young people’s rights to an education as mandated by the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling. She sheperded these young people into the history books and in the path of danger.
These children, because that is what the Little Rock nine were, endured physical and mental abuse at the hands of their white peers; with little support from the teachers and administration. The following school year, rather than integrate, whites managed to close all of the high schools, causing students to scramble for alternatives for their education. Walls Lanier use correspondence school and went out-of-state for awhile to attend high school. All because the fears of the white citizens of Little Rock were based on some archaic, distorted notion of the mixing of the races.
This past summer I visited Little Rock, along with my mother, sister and niece as part of our family reunion in the southern part of Arkansas. It is a much different city then it was in 1957. You would never have known this was formerly a Jim Crow city. We spent a lot of the time visiting and reliving the history of that city. We visited Central High and the majestic school’s architecture is amazing. Lanier Walls gives the history of how this school came to be built and why she so wanted to attend. Earlier this year, monuments were erected to the Little Rock nine on the Capitol grounds.
I recommend this book to students of the Civil Rights movement and also to young people to make them aware of the sacrifices made by African-American children and adults whose values for education were high priority after God and family.
This advanced reading copy was provided courtesy of the Vine program through Amazon.com.
Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub
Visit amazon to order a copy of A Mighty Long Way and to vote accordingly for Dera’s review.
Related Posts
Dera Williams is a writer and lives, works and plays in the Oakland/Bay Area where she works in curriculum at a local community college. She has contributed to several anthologies and journals including Life Spices from Seasoned Sistahs and Honoring Our Black Fathers and has written academic profiles for Greenwood press reference books. She is a reviewer/editor for APOOO Exchange Team and Affaire de Coeur magazine and active in literary events. Her book club affiliations include Marcus Book Club, East Bay Page Turners Book Club and Women of Words Book Club. Her other interests include genealogy, Black history and culture and travel.
Email this author | All posts by Dera Williams
I have never read any of their stories. I have felt compelled to do so for years because they were such groundbreaking figures in our history. I remember your blog abput the reunion. I am going to add this and the rest of the students stories to my TBR.