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INTRODUCTION 223 I. LEANDRO I 224 II. THE MANNING ERA BEGINS 230 III. THE HOKE COUNTY TRIAL AND LEANDRO II 231 IV. JUDGE MANNING LEADS THE SEARCH FOR THE "PROMISED [...], I have been asked by the North Carolina Law Review to submit this essay reflecting on the Leandro Case from the perspective of the only person to have participated in the first two opinions issued by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Thus, this will serve more as a personal reflection on the case than as a scholarly article normally published by the Law Review. Since my retirement from the court in 2004, I have not formally participated in the ongoing saga of the longest running case in North Carolina jurisprudential history. I have certainly followed the case through all its iterations since then. In fact, several months ago I found myself back in the courtroom at the Supreme Court of North Carolina for the next--and some would hope--final chapter of the case. Much has changed since that first oral argument there in 1996, when I was a relatively new justice on the court. And yet, much hasn't changed. But isn't that the issue? Had this case been the basis for a reality TV series, I have no doubt that as the clerk gaveled the court into session with the seven justices filing in, the background music would have to be the Beatles' 1970 Number 1 hit, "The Long and Winding Road." Yes, Leandro has traversed a long, long road since those early days, and that road has certainly been a winding road, one full of twists and turns, different personalities, both on and off the bench, and a changing political and educational landscape across the state. Is the end of that long and winding road in sight? Only time will tell.