Carlotta Walls LaNier - Infinite Women

Born: 18 December 1942, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Carlotta Walls

This biography is shared with kind permission from the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas, and was written by the National Park Service. All rights reserved. This entry was added in 2026; please check the Encyclopedia of Arkansas page for the most up-to-date version.

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 president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, a scholarship organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to education for African Americans, and is a trustee for the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Northern Colorado. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. In 2009, she published her memoir, A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School. In October 2015, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. In 2026, she published a children’s book, Carlotta’s Special Dress: How a Walk to School Changed Civil Rights History, co-written with Lisa Frazier Page and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

For additional information:
Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1986.

Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School. New York: Washington Square Books, 1994.

Jacoway, Elizabeth, and C. Fred Williams, eds. Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in Remembrance and Reconciliation. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.

LaNier, Carlotta Walls. “New Dress, New School: My Sophomore Year at Central High School.” FRANK (Fall/Winter 2007): 46–47.

LaNier, Carlotta Walls, and Lisa Frazier Page. A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School. New York: One World/Ballantine, 2009.

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center. Little Rock, Arkansas. http://www.nps.gov/chsc/ (accessed July 11, 2023).

Ross, Jim, and Barclay Key. “In the Wake of the Central High Crisis, Crime and Injustice.” Arkansas Times, November 2020, pp. 47–53. Online at https://arktimes.com/history/2020/10/27/in-the-wake-of-the-central-high-crisis-crime-and-injustice (accessed July 11, 2023).

Roy, Beth. Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment across Divides of Race and Time. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999.

Williams, Helaine R. “Carlotta Walls LaNier.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 24, 2017, pp. 1D, 8D.

The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

The End of Legal Segregation
In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision outlawed segregation in public education. Little Rock School District Superintendent Virgil Blossom devised a plan of gradual integration that would begin at Central High School in 1957. The school board called for volunteers from all-black Dunbar Junior High and Horace Mann High School to attend Central.

Prospective students were told they would not be able to participate in extracurricular activities if they transferred to Central such as football, basketball, or choir. Many of their parents were threatened with losing their jobs, and some students decided to stay at their own schools.

“[Blossom said] you’re not going to be able to go to the football games or basketball games. You’re not going to be able to participate in the choir or drama club, or be on the track team. You can’t go to the prom. There were more cannots…” Carlotta Walls LaNier, Little Rock Nine

“When my tenth-grade teacher in our Negro school said there was a possibility of integration, I signed up. We all felt good. We knew that Central High School had so many more courses, and dramatics and speech and tennis courts and a big, beautiful stadium.” Minnijean Brown, Little Rock Nine, to Look (June 24, 1958)

The First Day of School
On September 3, 1957, the Little Rock Nine arrived to enter Central High School, but they were turned away by the Arkansas National Guard. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard the night before to, as he put it, “maintain and restore order…” The soldiers barred the African American students from entering.

“I was not prepared for what actually happened.” Elizabeth Eckford, Little Rock Nine

“I thought he [Faubus] was there to protect me. How wrong I was.” Thelma Mothershed Wair, Little Rock Nine

The students arrived at Central alone on the first day. By prior arrangement, they gathered at the 16th Street entrance with several local ministers who accompanied them. Elizabeth Eckford arrived at the other end of the block by herself. She was met by a mob screaming obscenities and threats, chanting, “Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate!”

“We didn’t know that his [Faubus’] idea of keeping the peace was keeping the blacks out.” Jefferson Thomas, Little Rock Nine

More than two weeks went by before the Little Rock Nine again attempted to enter Central High School. On September 23, 1957, the Little Rock Nine entered the school. Outside, rioting broke out and the Little Rock police removed the Nine for their safety.

The President Becomes Involved
On September 24, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division -the “Screaming Eagles”- into Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National Guard. In a televised speech delivered to the nation, President Eisenhower stated, “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts.”

On September 25, 1957, under federal troop escort, the Little Rock Nine made it inside for their first full day of school. The 101st Airborne left in October and the federalized Arkansas National Guard troops remained throughout the year.

Inside the School
The Little Rock Nine had assigned guards to walk them from class to class. The guards could not accompany the students inside the classrooms, bathrooms, or locker rooms. They would stand outside the classrooms during class time. In spite of this, the Little Rock Nine endured verbal and physical attacks from some of their classmates throughout the school year. Although some white students tried to help, few white students befriended any of the Nine. Those who did received similar treatment as the Nine, such as hate mail and threats.

One of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was suspended in December for dropping chili on some boys after they refused to let her pass to her seat in the cafeteria. She was later expelled in February 1958 for calling a girl who had hit her with a purse “white trash.” After Brown’s expulsion, students passed around cards that read, “One Down, Eight to Go.”

Brown finished high school at New Lincoln School in New York City, while living with Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark. The Clarks were the social psychologists whose “doll test” work demonstrated for the Supreme Court in Brown that racial prejudice and segregation caused African-American children to develop a sense of inferiority.

The remaining eight students completed the school year at Central. Senior Ernest Green was the first African American student to graduate from Central High School.

“It’s been an interesting year. I’ve had a course in human relations first hand.” Ernest Green, Little Rock Nine, to Life (June 1958)

The Aftermath
The following year, the city’s high schools were closed to prevent further desegregation while the NAACP continued to pursue the legal case to integrate Little Rock’s schools.

When the schools reopened, Carlotta Walls and Jefferson Thomas returned to Central and graduated in 1960. Thelma Mothershed received her diploma from Central High School by taking correspondence courses to complete her studies.

The rest of the Little Rock Nine completed their high school educations at different schools. The Little Rock Nine have received numerous accolades and awards, from the renowned NAACP Spingarn Medal to the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Carlotta Walls LaNier returned to graduate from Little Rock Central High School in 1960. LaNier attended Michigan State University for two years before moving with her family to Denver. In 1968, she earned a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado. In 1977, she founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage firm. LaNier serves as president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation and is a member of the Denver Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, and the Johnson Legacy, Inc. Board of Directors. In addition to the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal and the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to her as a member of the Little Rock Nine, LaNier is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Northern Colorado and is an inductee in the Colorado Woman’s Hall of Fame, the Girl Scouts Women of Distinction and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She is the author of A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School.