Youngest of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. LaNier (born 1942) was the first black female to graduate from Central High School. In 1999, LaNier and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton. Autograph manuscript signed by Carlotta LaNier, signed “Carlotta Walls LaNier,” one page, 8.5 x 11, no date. Penned in black ink, the handwritten remembrance contains her thoughts of what it was like to be amongst the first black students to integrate the all-white High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, including having her home bombed. The manuscript, in full, “At 14 years old, I am the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at the previously all white Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The integration came as a result of the United States Supreme Court case: Brown vs. Board of Education, rendered three years earlier. I hadn't intended anything heroic when I signed up to attend. My 9th grade homeroom teacher at my all-black Junior High School passed around a sheet of paper in 1957 and asked the class if we'd be interested in attending Central High the following fall. I signed up without hesitation. My father lost jobs and had to travel across the country, sometimes for weeks to find work.
After the news cameras left the school, we experienced routine harassment and even violence. Despite the constant torment from the white students I never cried or retaliated. I was one of two of the original students to return to Central High School after the closing of all three Little Rock High Schools by Governor Orval Faubus in 1958-59 to avoid integration. Almost four months before graduation, on Feb. 9, 1960, my home was bombed. Two sticks of dynamite were placed at my home. The explosion removed brick, destroyed three windows and could be heard from two miles away. My father was away, but I, my mother, and my sisters were home. Nobody was harmed in the bombing, but it was the first bombing directed at one of us students. I got up that very next morning after my home was bombed and I went back to school because If I had not gone, they would have felt like they had won. I graduated and I am the only female of the Little Rock Nine to participate in graduation exercises at Little Rock Central High School, and I'm very proud of that diploma because I finished what I started." In very fine condition. Accompanied by a photo of LaNier at the time of the composition and by a photo of the Little Rock Nine walking the stairs of Little Rock Central High School.
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