Carlotta walls little rock nine

  • Carlotta walls lanier book

    • Marquette University

    On this day in 1960, four weeks before the Little Rock Central High School graduation, a bomb exploded at the home of Carlotta Walls. She was the youngest of the nine Black students--known as the Little Rock Nine--who integrated the school in 1957.

    In September 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock's Central High School by barring nine newly admitted Black students from entering the school building. In order to compel the school's integration, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and ordered troops to escort the students into the school, but the students were still confronted by angry white crowds of students and adults. That group of Black students came to be known as the Little Rock Nine, and 14-year-old Carlotta Walls was the youngest among them.

    In response to the admission of the Little Rock Nine, hundreds of white people attacked Black residents and reporters, causing nationally publicized “chaos, bedlam, and turmoil” that led a federal court to halt desegregation. The Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered immediate integration, but in a move voters later approved in a referendum, Governor Faubus closed all public high schools in Little Rock for the 1958-1959 school year.

    Carlotta Walls later described the integration experience as "painful" and recalled that Central High's white students fell into three groups: those who tormented her and the other Black students, those who sympathized with them, and those who silently ignored the way they were treated.

    Despite the open hostility that she encountered, young Carlotta Walls remained at Central High throughout her high school years. On February 9, 1960, four weeks before graduation, a bomb exploded at her home. Carlotta, her mother, and her sister were at home, but no one was injured by the blast. Police arrested and beat Carlotta Walls' father in unsuccessful

    Carlotta Walls LaNier

    American activist

    Carlotta Walls LaNier (née Walls; born December 18, 1942) is the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. She was the first black female to graduate from Central High School. In 1999, LaNier and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by PresidentBill Clinton. LaNier was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.

    Early and personal life

    Carlotta Walls LaNier was born on December 18, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas to Juanita and Cartelyou Walls. Cartelyou was a brick mason and a World War II veteran, while Juanita was a secretary in the Office of Public Housing. Cartelyou died in 1976 from leukemia. LaNier was the eldest of three girls. She was inspired by Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat in the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.

    LaNier first attended Dunbar Junior High School, a segregated school in Little Rock. However, after graduating, she volunteered to be one of the first African-Americans to attend Central High School. She married Ira (Ike) LaNier in 1968 with whom she had two children, Whitney and Brooke. She has two grandchildren, a granddaughter and a grandson. She currently resides in Englewood, Colorado.

    LaNier learned about the chance to go to Central High School by her homeroom teacher at her junior high. Her teacher asked if anyone was interested in going to Central, and LaNier popped out of her seat and registered to go to the new school. Her parents didn’t know she had been enrolled until the registration card showed up in the mail that July.

    On February 9, 1960, LaNier's home was bombed. Two sticks of dynamite were placed on her home. The explosion removed bricks

    Carlotta Walls LaNier: Her Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School

    Youngest member of Little Rock Nine calls for community to come together as one

    By Ruby Jones

    This Black History Month, as many pause to reflect on the tremendous accomplishments made by Black people throughout the history of the United States and the world, we celebrate an important milestone with a call to action from a civil rights leader and pioneer in the fight for educational equality. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, when nine courageous teenagers integrated an all-white school, changing the American education system forever.

    Carlotta Walls, Melba Pattillo, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Gloria Ray, and Thelma Mothershed walked into Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957 – a revolutionary act that helped drive the fight for equality during the Civil Rights Movement.

    Sixty-five years later as the fight for equality and civil rights continues, Carlotta (now Walls LaNier), the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine and a longtime Colorado resident shares messages of inspiration, empowerment, and hope for our community. Her message is accompanied by a request for organizations to work collaboratively to increase historical education among youth.

    At just 14 years old, LaNier’s decision to integrate Little Rock Central High School was informed by her experiences as a child living in the heavily segregated Jim Crow South, along with sacred wisdom passed down and sown into her by her elders. “I came up in an era where you didn’t speak unless spoken to,” she recalled, “but we listened.”

    In her memoir, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School, Walls LaNier includes stories shared by her great-great-grandfather, who spoke about the importance of education for advancement within the Black community; and her pa

  • Is carlotta walls still alive
  • Carlotta walls lanier parents

    • Carlotta Walls LaNier (1942–)

    Carlotta Walls LaNier made history as the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African-American students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 1957.

    The oldest of three daughters, Carlotta Walls was born on December 18, 1942, in Little Rock to Juanita and Cartelyou Walls. Her father was a brick mason and a World War II veteran, and her mother was a secretary in the Office of Public Housing.

    Inspired by Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger sparked the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, as well as the desire to get the best education available, Walls enrolled in Central High School as a sophomore. Some white students called her names and spat on her, and armed guards had to escort her to classes, but she concentrated on her studies and protected herself throughout the school year. Walls and every other Little Rock student were barred from attending Central the next year, when all four Little Rock high schools were closed, but she returned to Central High and graduated in 1960, despite her family’s house being bombed in February of that year.

    Walls attended Michigan State University for two years in the early 1960s before moving with her family to Denver. (Her father could not get work locally after the 1957 crisis.) In 1968, she earned a BS from Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) and began working at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) as a program administrator for teenagers.

    Also in 1968, Walls married Ira C. “Ike” LaNier, with whom she had a son and a daughter. In 1977, she founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage firm in Denver. She currently resides in Englewood, Colorado.

    LaNier was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), along with the other Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates, in 1958. She has also served as pr