![]() ![]() Bates became the NAACP field director for the state until he retired in 1971. They both, however, continued working for civil rights. The Bates’s newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, folded in 1959 because of advertising boycotts led by segregationists. Throughout the period of the crisis, the Bates’s home was under attack for their courageous stand in support of equal rights. Ultimately, Bates contacted General Edwin Walker, who was in charge of the troops at Central, to complain about the abuse and the Army subsequently assigned individual guards to each student. During my tirade against the school authorities for permitting this kind of cold blooded cruelty to continue, I paused in front of Jeff, who sat huddled in a big chair. “When I saw the size of the lump on the side of Jeff’s head, I completely lost my temper. She called for help to take him to the doctor and then to her home. Bates received a telephone call about the incident and was told that Thomas had been knocked unconscious. In early October, Jefferson Thomas, one of the Little Rock Nine, was struck behind the ear at school. Bates kept some records of the incidents of harassment and was even called upon to help out during a couple of severe episodes. Even though they were under federal troop protection, the Little Rock Nine endured harassment at the hands of some of their fellow students. Army’s 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, the students were escorted safely into the school.ĭaisy Bates continued to be an advocate for the students throughout their time at the school. Finally, on September 25, the day after President Dwight D. At first, the students were not allowed to enter the school. ![]() Daisy Bates and the nine black students who enrolled at the high school-the “Little Rock Nine”-withstood white segregationist intimidation. The Little Rock School Board announced its plan to begin desegregation at Central High School in September 1957. NAACP officials, accompanied by newspaper photographers, recorded each instance when AfricanAmerican children were refused admission to white public schools. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public education unconstitutional in 1954, Bates led the NAACP’s protest against the Little Rock School Board’s plan for gradual integration of the public schools and pressed instead for immediate desegregation. The Arkansas State Press focused on the need for social and economic improvements for the African American residents of the state, and became known for its fearless reporting of acts of police brutality against African American soldiers from a nearby military base.Īs a public and highly vocal supporter of the programs of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mrs. Bates was selected in 1952 to serve as the president of the state conference of the organization’s Arkansas branches. At one time it was the largest statewide African American owned paper. In 1941, she married Lucius Christopher Bates, an insurance salesman and former journalist, and together they moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and founded the Arkansas State Press newspaper. Hate the insults hurled at us…and then try to do something about it.”īates said of her father’s message, “He had passed on to me a priceless heritage-one that was to sustain me throughout the years to come.I decided I would do what I could to help my race.” Hate the discrimination that eats away at the soul of every black man and woman. Hate the humiliations we are living under in the South. “Hate can destroy you.If you hate, make it count for something. Her father’s words contained a timeless lesson: Although the tragedy of her mother’s death and the racial discrimination she experienced early in her life caused Bates to dislike whites, her adopted father disapproved of her prejudice and, moments before his death, said the words that inspired her to work for civil rights. Her father left shortly thereafter and Daisy was reared by friends of her father – the only family she ever knew. Her mother was murdered while resisting the advances of three local white men. As a child, she learned that her biological parents had been victims of racial violence. "Any time it takes eleven thousand five hundred soldiers to assure nine Negro children their constitutional rights in a democratic society, I can’t be happy."ĭaisy Lee Gatson Bates was born in the south Arkansas sawmill community of Huttig (Union County), on November 11, 1914.
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