"A Mighty Long Way" is a memoir by Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.
Chapter 9 is titled "First Day of School," and it focuses on the experiences of the Little Rock Nine on their first day at Central High School. The gist of the chapter is that the students were met with intense opposition from a large crowd of white protesters and the Arkansas National Guard, who had been sent by Governor Orval Faubus to prevent the students from entering the school. The students were threatened, harassed, and physically assaulted, and they were forced to leave the school under police protection. The chapter describes the students' feelings of fear, anger, and disappointment, as well as their determination to continue the fight for desegregation. The chapter ends with a sense of uncertainty about what the future holds, both for the Little Rock Nine and for the larger civil rights movement in the United States.