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Carlotta Walls LaNier was just fourteen when she and eight other teenagers made history by integrating Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Her story of surviving hatred, hostility, and hardships to go on and become the first black girl to walk across the stage of Central High and receive a diploma is recounted in"A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School," co-written with Lisa Frazier Page.

More than fifty years later, LaNier, the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, speaks around the country about her experiences and serves as president of their foundation, which provides scholarships to college-bound students. Here, she talks with Books on the Root about a post-racial America, changing minds, and the ordinary hero in all of us.

Read the entire interview at The Root.