Member of Little Rock Nine christens nuclear submarine named for Arkansas

The nuclear submarine USS Arkansas has been christened, almost a decade since the U.S. Navy announced that a Virginia-class submarine would bear the state’s name

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The nuclear submarine USS Arkansas was christened Saturday, almost a decade in the making since the U.S. Navy announced that a Virginia-class submarine would bear the state’s name.

Carlotta Walls LaNier, one the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, launched a bottle of sparkling wine into the hull of the Virginia-class submarine at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

In 2018, then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus named the six women of the Little Rock Nine as sponsors of the ship. Besides LaNier, Elizabeth Eckford and Gloria Ray Karlmark also attended the ceremony. All the sponsors had their initials welded into steel plates when the submarine’s keel was laid in 2022.

“History is full of groups of collective