**NEWPORT NEWS, Va.** — The nuclear submarine **Arkansas** was christened on **Saturday**, marking a milestone 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 of the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in **1957**, christened the submarine by launching a bottle of sparkling wine into its hull 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 submarine. In addition to LaNier, **Elizabeth Eckford** and **Gloria Ray Karlmark** attended the ceremony. Their initials were welded into steel plates during the submarine’s keel-laying in **2022**.
LaNier stated in her speech, “History is full of groups of collective people who come together to make something happen,” as reported by the **Arkansas Democrat-Gazette**. She reflected on the collaborative effort involved in bringing the submarine to fruition, referencing the phrase “E pluribus unum — ‘Out of many, one.’”
Navy Secretary **Carlos Del Toro** praised the submarine as “the very best of our submarine force capabilities.” He highlighted the legacy of its namesake, represented at the ceremony by three courageous sponsors from the Little Rock Nine.
Speeches at the event also commemorated the **83rd anniversary** of Japan’s attack on **Pearl Harbor**, a pivotal event in U.S. history that initiated its involvement in World War II.
The **Arkansas** is the fifth naval vessel named for the state, following a battleship, with the last being a guided-missile cruiser decommissioned in **1988**. The **Arkansas** is the **27th** in a series of Virginia-class submarines and the **13th** built at Newport News, which is owned by **Huntington Ingalls Industries**. Other submarines in the series are constructed at **General Dynamics Corp.’s Electric Boat** shipyard in Connecticut.
The **Arkansas** is expected to launch in **2025**.
