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

LaNier recounts listening to former President Bill Clinton speak at the 50th anniversary of her first year at Central. After LaNier graduated, she left Little Rock, got married, had kids, and rarely spoke of her experience until 30 years later when the Little Rock Nine were invited back to the school as guests of the NAACP. On that day, she has dinner with Bill and Hillary Clinton and speaks openly about her experience at Central for the first time. This launches LaNier's “quest for healing” and “greater understanding” (xv), of which her memoir is a result.

She has since stayed in touch with her “comrades” and began a nonprofit foundation for education with them. Though they are often framed as one unit, they are also nine individual people, and this book is LaNier’s individual story.

LaNier recalls her family history. Her formerly enslaved maternal great-great-grandfather Hiram claims his Cherokee and Spanish ancestry but distances himself from other enslaved people by virtue of his education. Hiram’s son, Papa Holloway, was the first non-white building contractor in Arkansas. After Papa’s longtime girlfriend died, she left the house to Papa. He sold it to LaNier’s father after he returned from WWII, when LaNier was three.