Daisy Bates was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. She sold the paper in December 1987, but remained a consultant. After the death of her husband in 1980, she revived the Arkansas State Press in April 1984. Her efforts resulted in a new water system in 1970 installation of a sewer system in 1971 paved streets, including Main Street and the completion of a community center and swimming pool in 1972. She was a community organizer for the Mitchellville Office of Economic Opportunity Self-Help Project. For six years she resided in a mobile home in the predominately black community. Bates moved to Mitchellville, Desha County, Arkansas, one mile north of Dumas. After suffering a stroke in 1965, she returned to Little Rock. Bates moved to Washington, D.C, where she worked for the Democratic National Committee and for the Johnson Administration's anti-poverty programs. The Long Shadow of Little Rock was published in 1962 with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. Bates moved to New York City and spent two years writing her memoirs of the Central High crisis. became NAACP field director for the state until his retirement in 1971. Because of their involvement in the integration of Central High, the subsequent loss of advertising revenue forced the Bateses to close the Arkansas State Press in 1959. The Little Rock School Board's desegregation plan, upheld by the District Federal Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, was to begin September 1957 at the senior high school level at Central High School. It was in this capacity that Daisy Bates became the advisor to the Little Rock Nine. In 1952 Daisy was elected president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP branches.

The Bateses were members of the NAACP from the time of their move to Little Rock. In 1948, the paper supported the candidacy of Sidney McMath for governor against segregationist Jack Holt and in 1952 supported former Governor Francis Cherry in his re-election bid against Orval Faubus. Unrelenting in its criticism, the paper attacked police brutality, segregation and the inequities of the criminal justice system. During its eighteen-year history, the Arkansas State Press became a leading voice in the Civil Rights Movement. It became the largest and most influential black paper in the state. After working for newspapers in California and Memphis, he moved to Little Rock and established the weekly Arkansas State Press the first issue appeared May 9, 1941. had previously worked for a Colorado newspaper for three years and later joined the staff of the Kansas City Call in Missouri. Although he was an insurance agent when Daisy met him, L. Bates attended Alcorn A and M College (now Alcorn State University) in Alcorn, Mississippi, and Wilberforce University in Ohio. Born in Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi, L. Bates (1901-1980) and settled in Little Rock. Daisy was reared by friends of the family, the only parents she ever knew. Her mother was killed resisting the sexual advances of three local white men and her father left shortly thereafter. Typical of early twentieth century race relations, her natural parents experienced the violence and powerlessness of the rural South. Datesĭaisy Lee Gatson Bates was born in the small southern Arkansas community of Huttig, in Union County, November 11, 1914. Bates’s career, and include pictures of the Little Rock Nine, whose advisor she was when they enrolled in Central High School.

More than four hundred photographs provide visual documentation of events in Mrs. Bates, members of the Little Rock Nine and their parents, Orval Faubus, and others, regarding Little Rock school desegregation. The collection also contains audio-visual materials, including recordings of interviews, speeches, and radio and television broadcasts featuring Mrs. Bates’s work with the OEO Self-Help Project at Mitchellville, Arkansas, and a considerable file of newspaper clippings. Other materials in the collection include honors and awards received by Mr. An index of correspondents is located at the end of this finding aid. Significant correspondents include Harry Ashmore, Dale Bumpers, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Orval Faubus, and Roy Wilkins. The files include correspondence resulting from her work and that of her husband, L.C. The collection consists of twelve boxes of correspondence and other documents, photographs, audio cassettes, and film.

Daisy bates