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

The night before LaNier’s first day at Central, Faubus, who had recently fallen in with segregationists, makes a speech about the discontent white families feel for Central’s “forcible integration” and speaks vaguely about threats of violence. He deploys Arkansas National Guard for protection; LaNier initially believes he means her protection.

The next morning, the school board tries to get the Black students to stay home, but US District Court Judge Ronald Davies calls to proceed with integration. Mrs. Bates, president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP branches, tells their parents to drop them off a block from school so an interracial group of pastors can escort them. The adults arrange a strategic formation around the students with the white pastors in front. As they approach the school, LaNier is stunned by the angry white mob, shouting the n-word and waving Confederate flags. Soldiers barricade the entrance to Central to keep the students out on Faubus’s order. The group is forced to leave.

LaNier sees on the news that three Black students hadn’t gotten the news to meet with the pastors. One of them, Elizabeth Eckford, was subject to such horrific abuse that it made international news.