A Mighty Long Way - Carlotta Walls LaNier

   2009; 273 pages.  Full Title: A Mighty Long Way – My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School.  New Author?  : Yes.  Genres : Civil Rights; American History;  Non-Fiction; Black and African-American Biographies.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    I am old enough to remember watching on TV the struggles to integrate schools in the Deep South.  The one that remains etched in my mind is George Wallace, then governor of Alabama, standing on the steps of a building, presumably on the University of Alabama campus, impeding black students, who were being escorted by federal troops, from entering therein.  Bloodshed loomed in my 12-year-old brain.

 

    But before push came to shove, and after giving a short segregationist speech, Wallace moved aside.  Shooting and other assorted violence were averted, at least while the national cameras were capturing the moment.  The students walked through the doors.

 

    But I’ve always wondered:  What was it like for those black students, and those who integrated other schools throughout the South, on the second day of school, or a week later, or when the next semester rolled around?  What harassment did they did they suffer through when all the cameras, troops, and news crews were no longer present?

 

    Thanks to A Mighty Long Way, I have an answer.

 

What’s To Like...

    Carlotta Walls LaNier is one of the “Little Rock Nine”, a group of high school age black students that took the first steps in integrating the Arkansas educational system in 1957.  I was just seven years old at the time and frankly I don’t remember it at all.  A Mighty Long Way is Carlotta’s memoir about the experience and how it impacted her life for many decades to come.

 

There are 17 chapters plus a prologue in the book.  They can be roughly divided into:

    1.) Prologue + Chs. 1-3:  Family history and early life.

    2.) Chs. 4-9: High school years and Integration.

    3.) Chs. 10-11: The house-bombing.

    4.) Chs. 12-14: High school graduation and college years.

    5.) Chs. 14-17: Post-collegiate Life.

 

    It should come as no surprise that Carlotta’s traumatic 10^th grade year (some of the other Little Rock Nine were 11^th and 12^th graders) had a profound effect on the rest of her life.  It did surprise me, however, that for many years afterward, she avoided mentioning her role in the integration movement and turned down all requests to speak at schools, churches, and other public events about it.

 

    The “Jackie Robinson test” was enlightening, and I was in awe of Carlotta’s meeting the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I enjoyed her (and my) grade-school memories of eagerly awaiting the Weekly Reader to be passed out, and I had to look up what the rules were to the card game “pitty-pat”.  I cringed when she had to endure being spat upon, cursed at and shoved in the high school halls while going to classes, and shuddered when she gave the details of the lynching of Emmett Till.  The dynamite-bombing of her family’s home and the relentless and untraceable telephone hate calls made me realize that integrating someplace in the South meant risking your life, as well as your family’s.

 

    The book closes on a high note: Barack Obama’s election to the presidency in 2008.  Carlotta sees it as a culmination of the Civil Rights movement, and one she never expected to see in her lifetime.  Even if she did favor Hillary Clinton early in the campaign.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 540 ratings and 70 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.14*/5, based on 1,365 ratings and 204 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

She-Ro (n.) : a woman regarded as a hero.

 

Excerpts...

    It never occurred to me as I grew up to question, even in my mind, why colored folks could go to the park only on certain days, why we had to climb to the back of the bus, or why stopping at a gas station to use the bathroom in most areas of the South wasn’t even an option.  Those were just the rules, and I learned to follow them like I learned to walk, by observing those closest to me and following their guidance until I knew the steps well enough to venture out on my own.  (loc. 340)

 

    Wherever I go to talk to students, I usually encounter some who know little or nothing about the Little Rock Nine.  Sometimes they’re African American.  Sometimes they’re white, Latino, or Asian.  But when they hear my story, often they get angry, like the white kid whose hand went up slowly in the back of the room after my first speech at Ponderosa High School in a Denver suburb many years ago.

    “Why am I just learning this?” he asked.  “Why haven’t I learned this in school before now?”  (loc. 3984)

 

That is the point of this book: to show that determination, fortitude, and the ability to move the world aren’t reserved for the “special” people.  (loc. 128)

    There’s not much to quibble about in A Mighty Long Way.  I counted just 7 cusswords in the entire book, and those were mostly when she was quoting somebody.  There is of course a slew of instances where she has to endure the N-word being screamed at her, but that was to be expected.

 

    There’s also a lot of name-dropping of people she met.  To name a few: Thelonius Monk (and many other jazz musicians), Thurgood Marshall, Satchel Paige, Langston Hughes, Herb Adderley, and Bill & Hillary Clinton.  But those encounters rang true, particularly the stone-throwing incident in Central Park, and it was kinda neat to see all the celebrities she rubbed shoulders with over the course of her life.

 

    I spotted only two typos – mid wester/midwestern and fifty-two-hundred/fifty-two hundred.  Kudos to the editors and proofreaders.  The book cover lists it as being written “with Lisa Frazier Page”, and the Foreword is by President Bill Clinton.  In Chapter 8 there are some family pictures of Carlotta and her kin.  Those were extremely heartwarming.

 

    9 Stars.  We live in an age where book-banning has once again become commonplace, and teachers, whether they are mentoring elementary school students or collegians, risk being fired for revealing what really occurred during critical moments in America's History.  Desegregation was an ugly time for the United States, but sweeping it under the carpet just makes it worse.  Thank goodness there are books like A Mighty Long Way, which tell the facts about the American Civil Rights movement, even if it is a harsh awakening.