December 18, 1942

Carlotta Walls LaNier, the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County). 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. In 1958, 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. She went on to serve as president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, a scholarship organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to education for African Americans.