By Jane Dennis*
May 21, 2007 | LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS)

Five decades ago, Carlotta Walls was 14 years old and excited about her first day of school at Little Rock's Central High School. To her it was simply a "new" school, not a "new white school."

But she and eight others were not allowed in because of their skin color. "I remember Ernie Green saying, 'What? You're not going to let us go to school?' It was a moment of disbelief. I loved school, I was ready for school, and there I was not going to be permitted to go to school."

Walls, who knew White Memorial Methodist Church in Little Rock as the church of her childhood and youth, was the youngest of the group now known as the Little Rock Nine. Taunted and heckled by unruly mobs of segregationists, it was weeks before the nine African-American students were allowed to attend classes. Initially, they were prevented from entering the campus by the Arkansas National Guard, called out by then-Gov. Orval Faubus to "protect the citizens of Little Rock," she recalled.

Then, once permitted to attend the school at the declaration of President Dwight Eisenhower, the children were pushed and shoved and spat upon. Most brought along a change of clothes each day because food or ink or something was sure to be spilled or thrown on them.

These were "days that marked me for life," she said.

World spotlight

Today, she is Carlotta Walls LaNier, a successful, independent businesswoman who lives in Denver. She returned to Little Rock April 24 to address a luncheon gathering and help launch a new book edited by United Methodist clergyman James T. Clemons. Crisis of Conscience: Arkansas Methodists and the Civil Rights Struggle features the stories of many who lived and took stands during the days of turmoil and conflict spurred by the slow dismantling of Southern segregation.

LaNier credits the historic decision of Brown vs. the Board of Education with putting her "in the world spotlight as a member of the Little Rock Nine."

"Brown impacted all of our lives in more ways than the right to have equal access to educational opportunities," she told the gathering of 200 people. Brown was the foundation for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. "Individuals who seek recourse for salary inequities are indebted in part to Brown," she said.

"Minorities who vote without having to pay a poll tax or take a literacy test are indeed indebted to Brown."

Making history

Hardships aside, according to many historians, the Little Rock Nine changed the course of U.S. history by championing the right to receive an equal education.

Clemons, a native of Arkansas and professor emeritus at United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, gathered the personal stories of Methodist leaders embroiled in the civil rights struggle in towns and cities across Arkansas. The book, co-edited by Kelly L. Farr, also includes the integration-related histories of Camp Aldersgate, Hendrix College and Philander Smith College, United Methodist institutions in Arkansas.

Many of the stories had never been documented. "They now become part of the recorded history of Methodism, Arkansas and America," Clemons writes in the book's foreword.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the crisis at Central High School.

Other special luncheon guests were Elizabeth Eckford, another member of the Little Rock Nine, and Carla Fine and Jill Fine Mainelli, daughters of New York Times education editor Benjamin Fine, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1957 Central High crisis.

In addition to LaNier, contributors to the book include, among others, United Methodist pastors Sylvia Bell, Frank Clemmons, Joel Cooper, Dick Haltom, Jim Major, Ed Matthews, John Miles and John Workman, and such notables as U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers and former U.S. Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders.

The book, published by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, is available by contacting Holly Mathisen at hmathisen@cals.lib.ar.us. Cost is $15 plus tax.

Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist, the newspaper of The United Methodist Church's Arkansas Annual Conference.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

The Little Rock Nine

History of the Little Rock Nine

Arkansas Annual Conference News

The Dwight D. Eishenhower Museum