Daisy Bates (November 11, 1914 – November 4, 1999) was an American civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, and lecturer who played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957.
Early life
Daisy Bates was born on November 11, 1914, to Hezekiah Gatson and Millie Riley. She grew up in southern Arkansas in the small sawmill town of Huttig. Gatson supported the family by working as a lumber grader in a local mill. Her mother was murdered when Daisy was an infant, and the girl was given care by her mother's close Friends: Orlee Smith, a World War I veteran, and his wife Susie. Her father abandoned her, and Daisy never saw him again. In The Death of My Mother, Bates recounted learning, at the age of eight, that her birth mother had been raped and murdered by three local white men, and her body thrown into a millpond, where it was later discovered.
Learning that no one was prosecuted for her mother's murder stoked Daisy's anger about injustice. Her adoptive father, Orlee Smith, told her that the killers were never found and that the police showed little interest in the case.<!-- How were the facts known? Were there witnesses to the attack? --> Daisy wanted vengeance. She later wrote:
Bates said she had never forgotten that. She believed that this memory supported her strength for leadership in the cause of civil rights.
Before Daisy was exposed to her birth mother's death, she often played with Beatrice, a white girl around her age. They shared pennies for hard candy, and got along well.
Bates's childhood included attendance in Huttig's segregated public schools, where she learned firsthand the poor conditions to which black students were exposed. Orlee Smith died when Bates was a teenager. Bates deeply appreciated him, leading to her own assumption that she married her husband because he shared similar qualities with Smith. Bates had great adulation for the man where she couldn't "remember a time when this man I called my father didn't talk to me almost as if I were an adult". In contrast to their relationship, Daisy had an austere relationship with her adoptive mother. Susie Smith would punish Daisy, who was "often clobbered, tamed, switched, and made to stand in the corner". After the death of Orlee Smith, the two had a falling out. Lucius divorced his first wife in 1941 before moving to Little Rock and starting the Arkansas State Press. Daisy and L.C. Bates married on March 4, 1942.
Arkansas State Press
After their move to Little Rock, the Bateses decided to act on a dream of theirs, the ownership of a newspaper. They leased a printing plant that belonged to a church publication and inaugurated the Arkansas State Press, a weekly statewide newspaper. The first issue appeared on May 9, 1941.
The Arkansas State Press was primarily concerned with advocacy journalism and was modeled off other African-American publications of the era, such as the Chicago Defender and The Crisis. Civil rights stories were displayed on the front page. It ran stories about the achievements of Black Arkansans as well as social, religious and sporting news. It also reported incidents of racial discrimination. Pictures were also in abundance throughout the paper.
The paper became an avid voice for civil rights even before a nationally recognized movement had emerged. Daisy Bates was later recognized as co-publisher of the paper.
As the former president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, Bates was involved deeply in desegregated events. Even though in 1954 the United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education made all the segregated schools illegal, the schools in Arkansas refused to enroll African American students. Bates and her husband tried to fight against the situation in their newspaper. The Arkansas State Press became a fervent supporter of the NAACP's integrated public school events. The State Press editorialized, "We feel that the proper approach would be for the leaders among the Negro race—not clabber mouths, Uncle Toms, or grinning appeasers to get together and counsel with the school heads." Concerning the policy of academic desegregation, the State Press cultivated a spirit of immediatism within the hearts of African-American and white citizens. Opposite to gradual approach, this newspaper mainly wanted immediate reform in Arkansas's educational system. The Arkansas State Press reported that the NAACP was the lead organizer in these protest events, and the newspaper also tended to enlarge national influence to let more people get involved in the educational events in Little Rock.
While Governor Orval Faubus and his supporters were refusing even token desegregation of Central High School, this editorial appeared on the front page:
Little Rock Integration Crisis
Bates and her husband were important figures in the African-American community in the capital city of Little Rock. They published a local black newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, which publicized violations of the Supreme Court's desegregation rulings.
The plan for desegregating the schools of Little Rock was to be implemented in three phases, starting first with the senior and junior high schools, and then only after the successful integration of senior and junior schools would the elementary schools be integrated. After two years and still no progress, a suit was filed against the Little Rock School District in 1956. The court ordered the school board to integrate the schools as of September 1957. "The battle for the soul of Little Rock had indeed begun, and Bates entered vigorously."
As the leader of the NAACP branch in Arkansas, Bates guided and advised the nine students, known as the Little Rock Nine, when they attempted to enroll in 1957 at Little Rock Central High School, a previously all-white institution. The students' attempts to enroll provoked a confrontation with Governor Orval Faubus, who called out the National Guard to prevent their entry. The guard only let the white students to pass the school gate. Eight students out of the nine were asked to go back home. One student, Elizabeth Eckford, didn't receive the message from Daisy Bates the previous night and was met by a white mob outside the school as she tried to find the other eight students in that morning. The mob threatened to kill the black students; members of the mob harassed not only activists but also Northern journalists who came to cover the story.
Bates used her organizational skills to plan a way for the nine students to get into Central High. She planned for ministers to escort the children into the school, two in front of the children and two behind. She thought that not only would they help protect the children physically but having ministers accompany them would "serve as powerful symbols against the bulwark of segregation". Bates continued with her task of helping the nine enroll in school. She spoke with their parents several times throughout the day to make sure they knew what was going on. She joined the parent-teacher organization, even though she did not have a student enrolled in school. She was persistent and realized that she needed to dominate the situation in order to succeed.
Nevertheless, the pandemonium at Central High School caused superintendent Virgil Blossom to dismiss school that first day of desegregation, and the crowds dispersed. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and dispatching the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to ensure that the court orders were enforced. The troops maintained order, and desegregation proceeded. In the 1958–59 school year, however, public schools in Little Rock were closed in another attempt to roll back desegregation. That period is known as "The Lost Year" in Arkansas.
A significant role of Bates during the Civil Rights Movement was the advocating and mentoring of the Little Rock Nine. Bates's house became a National Historic Landmark in 2002 because of her role during the desegregation of schools. Her house served as a haven for The Little Rock Nine. The planning of how desegregation would be carried out and the goals to implement were an important part of her role during the movement and specifically, the house was a way to help achieve advocacy for civil rights. Her house also was an official drop off and pick up place for the Little Rock Nine before and after school, every day. Because her house was an official meeting place, it became a center for violence and was often damaged by segregation supporters.
In 1998, a spokeswoman for Bates stated that Bates had felt guilty for her failure to notify one of the young ladies, Elizabeth Eckford, that they were delaying the entrance into Central High School. The family of the child had no telephone, and the father did not return from work until 3 a.m. Eckford didn't know that she needed her parents to accompany her, and she also didn't know that she needed to gather with other black students that morning. As a result, Eckford met a mob by herself, when a kind reporter, Grace Lorch, took her out of the mob and guided her to the bus station. The previous night, Bates fell asleep before she was able to deliver the message to the family, and the girl attempted to attend her first day alone at the segregated school. Bates not only wanted the black students to receive the same level of education as white students, but she also wanted to make it her job for all races to have the same quality of education.
The Little Rock City Council instructed the Little Rock police chief to arrest Bates and other NAACP figures; she and the local branch president surrendered voluntarily. They were charged with failing to provide information about NAACP members for the public record, in violation of a city ordinance. Though Bates was charged a fine by the judge, the NAACP lawyers appealed and eventually won a reversal in the United States Supreme Court. In a similar case, the high court held that the state of Alabama could not compel the NAACP to turn over its membership list to state officials.
In an interview with Bates, she says the most important contribution she made during the Little Rock crisis was: