100th Birthday of Daisy Bates Celebration

     The 100th Birthday of Daisy Bates Celebration will be held noon to 2 p.m. November 11 at the Clinton School of Public Service.  

     Ernie Green, one of the Little Rock Nine, is the speaker for the free event.

     Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was a civil rights activist in Little Rock who played a leading role in the integration of Little Rock Central High School by the Little Rock Nine in 1957.   She died in Little Rock on November 4, 1999. 

     Mrs. Bates and her husband, L.C. Bates, moved to Little Rock in 1941 and published the first issue of the Arkansas State Press that same year.  The eight-page weekly advocated for civil rights and published accounts of black Arkansans' achievements. 

     Daisy Bates and L.C. Bates.  Mr. Bates is wearing a press badge and camera, apparently representing the Arkansas State Press, their newspaper.  (The white man is not named in this undated photo.  Do you know his identity and the occasion?) 

     Mrs. Bates in Little Rock Circuit Court after being fined $25 for refusing to produce the membership rolls and financial records of the Arkansas NAACP, of which she was then president.  Her lawyer, Robert L. Carter, seated with her, said he would appeal the judgement. 

     After nine black students were selected to attend Little Rock Central High School, Daisy guided and advised them on enrollment in the previously all-white school.  At the time, she was head of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People's Arkansas branch.  Her home became the headquarters for the successful integration push.  In 1957, the Associated Press named her Woman of the Year in Education. 

     In later years in Washington, D.C., she worked for the Democratic National Committee and served in the administration of President Lyndon Johnson working on anti-poverty programs. 

     Little Rock named 14th Street, the street that runs to the north of Central High, for her and also named the Daisy Bates Elementary School in her honor.  In 1984, she was given an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Arkansas.