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30 August 2007

Carlotta Walls LaNier

Carlotta Walls LaNier visits Central High School on May 19 in Little Rock, Arkansas. (© AP Images)

Fifty years ago, black youngsters’ struggles to attend Little Rock’s Central High School during the 1957-1958 school year propelled the civil rights movement forward in the United States. (See “After Facing Mobs 50 Years Ago, Nine Go Home to Honors.”) The Little Rock Nine’s story is really nine stories.

Carlotta Walls LaNier took correspondence courses (conducted through the mail) during the 1958-1959 school year, when Little Rock high schools were closed -- first by the governor and then by popular vote -- to avoid integration.

After a successful campaign by Little Rock’s “Women’s Emergency Committee” to reopen schools, LaNier returned to Central as a senior. “I had to have that sheet of paper,” she said, referring to her diploma. “It was an achievement. I helped change the educational system.”

She then earned a degree from Colorado State College and went on to found a real estate brokerage firm and raise two children.

Even though the press helped bring national attention to the unfair treatment of the Little Rock Nine, some reporters were exploitive, LaNier said. “Sometimes they didn’t do their homework. They had a story already written and just wanted to fill in the blanks.”

Carlotta Walls in 1957 (© AP Images)

Once, LaNier recalls, fellow student Jefferson Thomas played a trick on a reporter who had not “done his homework.” When asked his name, Thomas answered “George Washington.”

A few minutes later, the reporter asked LaNier her name and she answered “Martha Washington.” Thomas and LaNier laughed about the reporter dutifully scribbling those names – of the first U.S. president and his wife – in his notebook.

Several of the Little Rock Nine are shy of the press, having chosen to work and raise families outside of the limelight.

“Because we spend so much time thinking about all of these characters as symbols, it does come as a surprise when they don’t think of themselves as symbols,” said historian Taylor Branch.

LaNier did not talk about her experiences at Central High for decades. But, after a 30th anniversary event was covered by Cable News Network, she returned home to Denver to find teachers asking her to speak to their classes. That brought back painful memories. One such memory was opening the newspaper in March 1960 to a story of a murder-suicide involving a top Little Rock police official, Eugene Smith. Smith had protected the Little Rock Nine from mobs and had sometimes called Daisy Bates, the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to ask her to warn the students when some cruel act was planned to torment them at school.

LaNier told America.gov that, as she has gotten older, it has been easier to talk about the events at Central High School. She is now working on a book about that time.

See Black History Month.

Listen to LaNier talk about the support she received from her parents and the need for the next generation to continue helping children get good educations.