Little Rock Nine member to Colorado Springs crowd: 'Young people need to know this part of history'

Jan. 17—Colorado Springs residents were treated to a piece of living history on Tuesday when Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of nine Black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, visited the Pikes Peak Library District's 21C branch.

LaNier, the youngest of the group that came to be known as the Little Rock Nine, shared her harrowing experiences in front of a rapt audience in the library's event venue. By her account, it took 30 years for LaNier to be able to speak publicly about the verbal — and sometimes physical — abuse heaped upon her and the other eight students during their time at Little Rock Central.

But now, she's a coveted public speaker and author of a memoir, titled "A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School." On Tuesday, LaNier announced the launch of a young readers' version of the book.

"Young people need to know this part of history," she explained. "To me, you have to understand where you come from, to know where you're going."

The audience hung on her every word, occasionally gasping in horror, as LaNier gave a first-person account of a landmark event in U.S. history.

After Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that it was unconstitutional to racially segregate public schools. In theory, this meant LaNier (then Carlotta Walls) could attend classes with the white students she played softball with in the summertime. The reality, she said, was quite different.

In the spring of 1957, LaNier and 116 other Black students signed up to be the first to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Of those, 39 kids were selected to begin attending in September.

"I was excited to be going to high school," she said. "I passed the school every day, and I knew I had a right to be there. That right was (given) to me by Brown v. Board of Education, and I intended to exercise that right."

LaNier remembers an assembly where the superintendent counseled the prospective students and their parents on the dos-and-don'ts of school integration. Mostly, she said, the talk consisted of don'ts.

Black students at Central would not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities like football, basketball or choir. They would not be able to attend games. They could not go to prom.

"He's saying that we cannot be in the choir, that we cannot be in the band, we could not play any of the sports," said LaNier, who had been captain of her junior high school's basketball and cheerleading teams.

"We could come to school in the morning, and leave at 3:30, and not return until the next morning."

On Sept. 3, 1957, nine Black students showed up to attend Central High School. LaNier isn't sure what happened to the other 30 prospective students, but she did say that many Black parents were told they would be fired from their jobs if their kids went to Central.

Then-Gov. Orval Faubus, a determined segregationist, called out the Arkansas National Guard the night before, ostensibly to maintain order. So when LaNier and the other Black students arrived at the school, they were turned away by a cadre of armed men. About 100 people had gathered outside the school, screaming obscenities and racial epithets at the teens.

Sign up for free: Springs AM Update

Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening.

Sign Up

View all of our newsletters.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

"They were very loud about where they stood," LaNier said.

About two weeks later, the Nine tried again. This time, according to LaNier, the mob of protesters had grown to more than 1,000. A riot ensued, and the Little Rock police removed the students for their safety. LaNier remembers riding in a squad car, covered with a blanket (which she promptly removed so she could see what was happening).

"I heard one policeman say to the other policeman, who was driving the car, 'Put your foot to the floor, and don't stop for anything."

On Sept. 25, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower mobilized units of the Army's 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. And so, escorted by soldiers, the Little Rock Nine broke through the color line.

Guards walked the Black students from room to room, and stood in the hallways during class time. They could not, however, protect the students from the abuse they suffered at the hands of their white classmates.

Through it all, LaNier concentrated on her studies as best she could, and managed to get through her first year at Central.

The following year, still determined to fight segregation with everything he had, Faubus closed the city's high schools. As a result, 3,600 Little Rock students "had no high school to go to," she said.

During what is now known as the "Lost Year," LaNier took correspondence courses to complete her junior year of high school. When she returned for her senior year in 1959, only one other member of the Nine returned with her. Ernest Green, who was a senior in 1957, had graduated from Central in 1958. Most of the others had left Little Rock to complete their schooling elsewhere.

But not LaNier. "I started (at Central) and I planned to finish there," she said.

On Feb. 9, 1960, about a month before LaNier was set to graduate, a bomb exploded in her home. Devastated but undeterred, LaNier returned to school the next day. "I was not about to let them think that they had won," she said.

LaNier graduated in May 1960, the only female member of the Little Rock Nine to attend the ceremony.

"The very next day, I took the first thing smoking out of Little Rock," she said.

LaNier attended Michigan State University for two years before moving with her family to Denver. In 1968, she graduated from Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado). In 1977, she founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage firm. In 1999, LaNier and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor. President Bill Clinton, an Arkansas native, bestowed the award.

Now 80, LaNier hopes to inspire young people to learn their nation's history — the good and the bad — and to use its lessons to continue forming "a more perfect Union."

"The fact that young people seem to be getting more politically involved is very encouraging to me," LaNier said. "They are the ones who are going to run this world."