Daisy Bates
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates
1914 – 1999
Daisy Bates and her husband Lucious Christopher Bates operated the Arkansas State Press in Little Rock. This was a weekly Black newspaper that promoted civil rights. Bates joined the civil rights movement and in 1952 became the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP. Leading this branch, Bates played a pivotal role in desegregating Arkansas.
Bates reported on the 1954 Brown v Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision which facilitated the integration of Little Rock Central High School. The Bates home served as the organizing and strategy center for the nine Black students selected to integrate Central High School, known as the Little Rock Nine. For the entire 1957-58 school year, Bates personally escorted the students to school.
White southerners rewarded her courage with countless death threats and the Bateses were forced to close the Arkansas State Press.
Recognizing her dedication to the fight for desegregation, Bates was named Woman of the Year by the National Council of Negro Women in 1957. In 1958, together with the Little Rock Nine, Bates received the Spingarn Medal, which is the NAACP’s highest award. Four years later Bates would chronicle her struggles in a memoir titled The Long Shadow of Little Rock. The introduction to Bates’ memoir was written by former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
During the struggle to assist the Little Rock Nine, Bates befriended Dr. Martin Luther King. After delivering the keynote address for the Women’s Day celebration at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, Bates was elected to the executive committee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Like John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, and Dr. King, Bates spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Bates was later recruited to work with the Democratic National Committee in the nation’s capital. Bates also briefly served in President Lyndon Johnson’s administration.
Following the death of her husband, Bates returned to Little Rock and revived the Arkansas State Press. The Daisy Bates Elementary School was dedicated in Little Rock in 1987, and subsequently, the state named the third Monday in February George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day.
