Daisy Bates, 1914-1999
Daisy Bates, 1914-1999
When Daisy Bates was three years old her mother was killed by three white men. The unfortunate incident forced Bates to confront racism at an early age and pushed her to dedicate her life to ending racial injustice. She met her future husband at fifteen and the couple settled in Little Rock, Arkansas where they started The Arkansas Weekly, one of the only African American newspapers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. Bates worked as an editor and regularly contributed articles to the statewide circulation. She used her newspaper to publicize schools who did not follow the federal mandate of 1954 that ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. Bates served as President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and organized the Little Rock Nine, nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She drove students to school and protected them from violent crowds for which she received bullet shells in the mail and rocks thrown into her homes several times. The threats forced the Bates family to shut down their newspaper. For her work, the state of Arkansas proclaimed the third Monday in February, Daisy Gatson Bates Day. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999.
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Daisy Bates, 1914-1999
When Daisy Bates was three years old her mother was killed by three white men. The unfortunate incident forced Bates to confront racism at an early age and pushed her to dedicate her life to ending racial injustice. She met her future husband at fifteen and the couple settled in Little Rock, Arkansas where they started The Arkansas Weekly, one of the only African American newspapers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. Bates worked as an editor and regularly contributed articles to the statewide circulation. She used her newspaper to publicize schools who did not follow the federal mandate of 1954 that ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. Bates served as President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and organized the Little Rock Nine, nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She drove students to school and protected them from violent crowds for which she received bullet shells in the mail and rocks thrown into her homes several times. The threats forced the Bates family to shut down their newspaper. For her work, the state of Arkansas proclaimed the third Monday in February, Daisy Gatson Bates Day. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999.