The USS Arkansas (SSN 800), one of the U.S. Navy’s newest nuclear submarines, was christened Saturday, Dec. 7, by members of the historic desegregation group known as the Little Rock Nine. It has been just over a decade since the Virginia-class submarine was ordered. She was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, and dignitaries, shipyard workers, and the families of the Little Rock Nine all gathered there this weekend for the christening ceremony.
The vessel joins a long tradition of nuclear submarines, becoming the 27th in the Virginia class, also known as the 774-class. These subs can be used for a wide range of ocean and shoreline missions. They were designed as a less expensive alternative to the Seawolf-class attack submarines. (The Arkansas was built at a cost of $1.11 billion, while a Seawolf-class submarine costs about $3.5 billion).
At Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) on Saturday, Carlotta Walls LaNier, an 81-year-old member of the Little Rock Nine, did the honor of breaking the traditional bottle of sparkling wine over the bow of the Arkansas.
The surviving members of the Little Rock Nine, who are now octogenarians, were honored for their role in turning the tide on segregation in the mid-20th century. In 1957, the nine teenagers were the first Black students to enroll at Little Rock Central High School. The Supreme Court’s Brown v. The Board of Education ruling in 1954 made segregated schools illegal, but some state leaders refused to comply. When the nine students were blocked from school by the Arkansas National Guard, President Dwight Eisenhauer sent U.S. Army troops to protect the teens. They endured ongoing harassment throughout their time at school, and have since been seen as symbols of the fight for civil rights.
Melba Pattillo Beals, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, and Thelma Mothershed-Wair (who, sadly, passed away on Oct. 19, 2024) are all named as the sponsors of the submarine Arkansas, 67 years after they took their first steps into that previously all-white high school. (U.S. Navy ship sponsors are traditionally female).
At the keel-laying of the nuclear sub, the sponsors’ initials were welded into a part of the vessel. At the christening ceremony, Walls LaNier addressed the crowd on behalf of her fellow sponsors and the three male students of the Little Rock Nine—Ernest Green, Terrence Roberts, and Jefferson Thomas (who passed away in 2010).
Walls LaNier broke the bottle across the submarine’s bow, recognizing the “specialized, highly trained” group of people who built the ship and the group of sailors who will serve as its crew.
She praised the 4,000 Newport News shipbuilders who supported or participated in the Arkansas‘s construction. “I am so proud of the fact to see the diversity among the shipbuilders. So progress has been made in our country and I really do feel good about that,” said LaNier.
You can watch the submarine’s christening in its entirety, and interviews with members of the Little Rock Nine and Newport News shipbuilders, here:
