Until then, Black students only attended schools designated for Blacks. That was until May 17, 1954 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Black children must be allowed to attend any public school in order to obtain an equal education. Afterward, the NAACP took on the task of desegregating all-white schools in the South.

A year after the court ruling, the Little Rock school board ap­proved the registration of African American students and developed a plan to gradually integrate the school system. And on Sept. 4, 1957, Walls, along with Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jef­ferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo (a Texas native) and Jane Hill made their first attempt to walk through the doors of Central. The group would later be known around the world as the Little Rock Nine.

The journey begins

In A Mighty Long Way, written by Walls, she writes about her experience from a young girl’s perspective. She describes how innocently she became excited about the opportunity to attend the all-white school. She couldn’t wait to wear her new dress. She wondered how many of the students from her school would attend and who she would sit next to in class.

However, before the Black students could attend their new school, they had to attend a meeting with District Superintendent Virgil Blossom. He explained that it would take time for both the Black students and the white students to adjust and the Black students may hear some name-calling, but must not retaliate. He said, for their own safety, they had to leave the campus as soon as their last class ended and could not participate in extracurricular activities — such as varsity sports, clubs, chorus, band and student government. Walls, who was a sophomore vice president and part of her school’s girls’ basketball team the previous year, thought surely he was mistaken. She thought once the students got to know her and saw how well she played, they would want her on the team.

Then, as Walls recalls in her book, she woke up from her little world when Blossom addressed the boys.

“You are not to date or even look at our girls,” he said sternly. Walls thought of the murder of Emmett Till and was concerned for Green. During the meeting, there were no questions and no discussion. At the end of the meeting, the students and parents walked out quietly.

On September 3, Walls heard a news report that white citizens were in an uproar and had made threats regarding the integration of the public schools. In her innocence, she couldn’t believe that the presence of she and her classmates could cause so many people to be so outraged. The report continued, saying that Gov. Orval Faubus had called out the National Guard to protect the local citizens. Being a tax-paying citizen, she was sure that included her, and was comforted by his words.

Blossom called a meeting for the parents and told them it was not a good idea to escort their children to school. He said that their presence could insight a riot. Wanting to do whatever was best for their children’s safety, the parents complied.

Later that evening, her parents re­ceived a call instructing them to drop her off a block from school and a group of interracial ministers would escort her and the other new students to school. She wouldn’t have to go alone, after all.

When Walls ar­rived at the meeting place the next day, she and her parents recognized two of the ministers that would escort the group, one of which was her former pastor. As she joined the group, she saw a few other students — including Green — that she knew from her old school.

The group of ministers formed a prayer circle with the students then proceeded quietly in a deliberate formation, toward the school. As the group drew closer toward the campus, they could hear the rumbling of large crowd ahead. With each step, the rumbling grew louder and louder.

Upon their arrival, the group was met with an angry white mob, screaming and yelling, with only one word strong enough to be heard repetitiously with clarity over the other — the N-word. With glaring eyes and snarly mouths, the word was heard over and over again, until it seemed to pierce her ears. Walls remembered what her father had told her for many years, about not letting the ignorance of others scare her.

When the students arrived at the door, they were face-to-face with Arkansas National Guardsmen. The men stood stern and refused to let the students enter. The students were shocked as they realized that the guard was not there to protect them, but to keep them from entering the school. The students stood frozen in shock for several minutes after being told to leave the school campus, then proceeded back home, through the angry mob.

Walls, who had never missed a day of school, said that she was angry because she was excited about going to her new high school and she had a new store-bought dress that she picked out just for the occasion. Later, she became angry when she learned that the governor defied the Supreme Court decision and they were denied access to the school that they had right to attend.

That evening, Walls watched a news report of an incident with Eckford, who was suppose to join them a block away from the school, but had not received the information. The report showed the young lady press her way through the raging crowd as it surrounded her, viciously yelling, spitting and clawing at her.

If at first you don’t succeed

The students and their families had no idea when the group would be allowed to attend the school. Three weeks later, a judge ordered that the students be allowed to enter the school.

Once again, the students prepared for their first day of school. This time, the students didn’t have the general first-day-of-school jitters. The mood was more serious and the students had a better idea of what was at stake and what to expect.

This time, the students arrived in two cars, driven by NAACP members. But the same mob was still there to greet them. Eckford did not return with them. Only nine of the students walked up to the side entrance of the school. As they entered, the doors slammed behind them and they proceeded quickly and quietly up two sets of stairs. They were met by a woman who gave them their schedules and pointed out the way to their classrooms.

The historic event was captured by Black journalists who worked for African-American newspapers. Followed by a couple of protestors, the men received a small sample of what the students had endured, but insisted that they were there to do their job.

Finally seated in her chair, in her first class, Walls said that her first thought was about how far behind she must be in her classes. She knew that she could do as well as the other students, given an equal opportunity. But, with so much time passed since the first day of school, she wondered how long it would take for her to catch up.

But she was there because she had the right to be and it gave her an opportunity to get the best education the school district could provide.

“As much as I like white people, I don’t get a thrill from sitting by them,” Walls explained while on stage at Mountain View College on February 26, during the DCCCD Black History Month Celebration. “It was about opportunity.”

Walls explained that going to Central would give her the opportunity to learn from newer books and classroom supplies, attend labs with one partner, rather than several students having to share, attend less crowded classrooms, and other opportunities that would “level the playing field.”

In her book she explains that her school, Dunbar High School — along with several other “Negro” schools cost its contributors $400,000, and consisted of 34 classrooms for its junior high, senior high and junior college students. While for Central the Little Rock school district invested $1.5 million in its state-of-art hites-only facility, built with 100 classrooms for only senior and junior high students. However, that day didn’t mark the end of the struggle to desegregate the schools. Walls told the audience that the abuse continued during her time at the school. However, she didn’t worry her parents with information about the daily abuse. After an incident with one student, there remained only eight students.

“Central High became the testing ground where I got to tryout everything that I learned,” Walls said during her visit. “It was a tough year, but challenges come into our lives so that we can learn lessons. Some of those lessons that I learned, was that I had to hang in there until the job was done. I learned to trust myself and my own instincts first, I learned that others were there for me; like my parents, my church, my neighbors and even strangers who sent letters from all over the world.”

Darkness before the dawn

The next school year was met with more protests and threats. After threats about a mob on its way to the school, Walls and the other students were escorted out of their classrooms and to a safe location, until they could be escorted to their parents and taken home.

In 1958, during her 11th grade year, the governor closed all of the schools and 3,700 students had no high school to attend, Walls told the audience. She completed the year through the University of Arkansas correspondence classes. The schools were reopened in August 1959 and she returned to Central in September.

On Feb. 9, 1960, Walls was awakened one night by a loud booming noise that shook the house. Realizing that it was an explosion at the front end of the house, Walls ran through the smoke-filled house to find her sisters and mother.

In her book, Walls wrote about that terrifying moment in chapter 10, then went on to discuss the men that were accused of the crime, in the next chapter titled Scapegoats.

After years of tension, terror and abuse, Walls graduated in May 1960. She wrote that her graduation was a victory, not just for she and her family, but those who supported them along the way.

“I needed that diploma to validate everything that I had gone through,” she said.

Walls went on to attend Michigan State University, then Colorado State University, where she received her degree. At the end of her book, she recalls the moments between the Election Day of November 2008 and the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. She noted that it was then, when she realized the significance of the first day she placed her feet on the steps of Little Rock Central High School. She said that it took each step of those young students into a hostile all-white school, to get to the moment when a man of African heritage would take his first steps into the White House as President of the United States.

Walls — now Carlotta Wall LaNier, a wife and mother of two — travels around the country to promote her book, discussing the historic significance of the Little Rock Nine and the importance of education.

“I hope to bring attention to education and to show that you can persevere over adversity and still get to whatever your goals might be,” she said. “And [I hope] people will purchase my book and read about why they are where they are today, in some classrooms, and so forth. A lot of people really don’t realize if we had not been successful in integrating Little Rock Central High School I don’t think we would be where we are today.”

She said she felt most youth don’t understand the great opportunities they have and the importance of education.

“If you get that education, no one can take it away from you. I feel — and this is a personal opinion of mine — that families do not emphasize and make education the number one priority. We really do need to get back to that foundation.”

This article was originally published in the March 8, 2010 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper