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Little Rock Nine member Carlotta Walls LaNier wants young people to find their voice amid political polarization.
“They need to know who they are, and whose they are,” LaNier said. “They can stand up and speak up.” LaNier encouraged young people of voting age to “give themselves a birthday gift by going and registering to vote.”
The youngest of the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, LaNier spoke Thursday at the Clinton Center in Little Rock as part of a series of events commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.
The event, moderated by Clinton Foundation Executive Director Stephanie S. Streett, was meant to “explore the dramatic changes to the fabric of American society through the lens of the Civil Rights Movement and the personal story of Walls LaNier and her fellow Little Rock Nine members,” according to a news release. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott were among the audience.
When LaNier signed up to attend Central in April of 1957, she did so on her own. LaNier’s parents had always taught her the importance of education, she said, and her decision reflected what she had learned from them.
LaNier still remembers her parents’ joy and surprise when she received the registration card that July. “I can still see my father’s proud face. My mother, too,” LaNier said.
“I didn’t think of it as making history,” she added. “I was doing it for myself.”
To LaNier, the parents of the Little Rock Nine were the “real heroes” for allowing their children to continue attending Central. “We always know that there’s going to be some pushback,” she said. But “I don’t think that they thought what took place was going to happen, at least to that degree.”
Civil rights activist Daisy Bates was instrumental in the efforts to desegregate Central. The Little Rock Nine would debrief every day at Bates’ home, LaNier said. It was there that she met “some very iconic people,” including Martin Luther King Jr. and writer and journalist Simeon Booker.
In 1960, LaNier became the first Black woman to graduate from Central, according to the release. In 1977, she founded a real estate brokerage company.
LaNier has also spoken with students around the country and written two books about her experiences.
LaNier wrote a picture book titled “Carlotta’s Special Dress: How a Walk to School Changed Civil Rights History,” at the urging of her grandson, then 7 or 8 years old. That dress, along with her Central diploma and a report card, is now exhibited at the National Museum for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., LaNier said.
On Thursday, LaNier urged youth to engage with history and to tell their stories, just as she told hers.
“My hope is that the young people will take the baton and run with it,” LaNier said. “They can do it. They will do it. All they need is the support and encouragement of us — those who have gone down this path before.”
Asked for her thoughts on the recent resolution of the long-running desegregation lawsuit that shaped Little Rock-area schools for decades, LaNier said it was important for young people to remember why desegregating schools mattered.
“It is very necessary for kids to understand why they should be in school with others that don’t look like them. They learn from each other,” LaNier said. “We need to desegregate these schools so that humanity gets to know humanity.”
