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12 Timeline DAISY BATES (1913?–1999) Daisy Bates is best remembered as a political activist. She worked to change the laws of Arkansas so that all people would have equal rights. She was born in Huttig,Arkansas, where she was raised by foster parents, Orlee and Susan Smith. She attended a segregated school. This means that all the students in her school were African American. So were all the teachers.Another segregated school in Huttig had only white students and white teachers.Throughout the state of Arkansas, all the schools were segregated.When she was fifteen years old, she met L. C. Bates, a traveling salesman. They were married in 1942. Even before their marriage, they worked together in Little Rock, Arkansas. They ran a newspaper for African Americans called the Arkansas State Press. In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that schools should be desegregated.This means that African American students and white students would attend the same schools. Some cities in Arkansas —such as Charleston, Fayetteville ,andHoxie—quicklycombined their school systems. Other cities, including Little Rock, were much slower to desegregate their schools. Bates and her husband believed that desegregation should happen quickly. In a court case in 1956, she testified about the need to allow all the students in Little Rock to attend any school. Bates also insisted that she be treated with the same amount of respect that was given to white witnesses.The next year, nine Thanksgiving dinner, November 1957, with L. C. and Daisy Bates and Little Rock Nine students. Photo by Will Counts; Will Counts Collection: Indiana University Archives Born: circa 1913 Worked with Little Rock Nine: 1957–58   13 African American students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. Daisy and L.C.Bates supported and encouraged those nine students. Though the students were insulted and threatened, they were able to attend classes. One of them graduated the following May.Throughout their ordeal, Bates and other people supported and encouraged the nine students.They reminded them that their success would help to change the laws in Arkansas and would make life better for many other people. Bates also spoke publicly on behalf of the group. She helped national organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored P e o p l e (NAACP), to remain in contact with the students and their other supporters. Bates moved to NewYork in 1960. She was on the board of the NAACP until 1970. In 1963, she spoke to the same crowd in Washington DC that heard Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. She returned to Arkansas in 1968, living in Mitchellville and working to overcome poverty. SeveralArkansas cities have named streets for her. The third Monday in February each year is a state holiday in Arkansas dedicated to her memory. Spoke with Dr. King in Washington DC: August 28, 1963 Died: November 4, 1999 “We will walk until we are free,until we can walk to any school and take our children to any school in the United States.”   Huttig Little Rock Daisy Bates; circa 1960. Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville ...

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