Daisy Bates Research Paper

Civil rights activist, Daisy Bates was at the core of the school desegregation catastrophe in Little Rock, Arkansas in September 1957. Bates used her position as president of a local Arkansas branch of the NAACP to strategically destroy the segregated school system. Her civil rights work involved changing the policies of the Arkansas Public School System that promoted segregation of school students, which in turn denied equality of educational resources and qualitative instruction to Arkansas’ Negro students. This fight for civil rights for students of color caused a fundamental shift in how the state educated its students both Black and White. Her plan halted the nation to expose the segregation in the Arkansas school district. Bates advocated for Black children to attend public schools that had been segregated arguing that the school system needed to be desegregated. As a result of argument, Bates became the mentor to nine African-American students, who enrolled in

Little Rock’s Central High School. These nine students would later become known as the Little Rock Nine.
Bates, who worked with her husband were the owners of, The Atlantic Constitution, a newspaper that they used for publishing the mistreatment of Blacks around the country bringing awareness to the many lynching of Black men, the weaknesses of federal laws for equality, racial inequalities, and most notably segregation in the school system in Arkansas. Modeling the paper after northern papers, the Bates received national support for their contribution to the civil rights movement. Bates was committed to ending segregation and all forms of domination from the whites that extended from whites.
Bates learned as a child in Huttig, Arkansas that Blacks were demarcated by the regiments and rules of white society. Bates who was born Daisy Lee Gatson in 1913 in Huttig, Arkansas never knew her birth parents. She was adopted by her father’s best friend as a young child. Rumors about her real parents spread through the town of Huttig for some time. The most notable gossip about the adopted child was that Daisy’s birth mother had been a victim of rape and her father was forced to leave Huttig by cruel white men.
Daisy Lee Gatson was born on November 13, 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas. She never knew her birth parents, John Gatson and Millie Riley, according to a birth certificate that was located in 1962. Rumors about her natural parents explained that Daisy’s mother was murdered after being raped. Her natural father moved away from Huttig shortly after the incident. No formal charges were ever brought against the alleged attackers and no one sought to locate those who harmed her family. She was adopted and reared by her natural father’s best friends, Orlee Smith and his wife Susan Smith, who raised young Daisy until she reached her late teens.
Moreover, Bates lineage remained a subject of discussion for many years to come.

There was belief that she may have had a white father who lived in Louisiana. Assumed to be an only child in the Smith house, she formed relationships with adopted cousins that sought to bring closure to her identity. Growing up in the Smith household, she grew close to her adopted father Orlee Smith, a World War I veteran.

In her autobiography, ‘The Long Shadow of Little Rock’ Daisy boasts of her adoration for her father Smith. Bates admiration for the man was sure as she mentioned in her memoirs that he was a man strong, apt to listen to her, behaved respectfully towards her, an unselfish gentleman. In addition to the attribution of the activist attributed her strong sense of self to these characteristics that her adopted father exhibited that shifted her social perceptions. It had been Smith, who shaped the young woman into the person that she would later become training her how to cope with racism in the

South.
The advocate for education had an opposing opinion of her adopted mother in comparison to the imagery that is gained when reviewing her sentiments for her father. On the contrary, Susie Smith, Orlee Smith’s wife and mother for Daisy was characterized by the champion of equality as a stern authoritarian. In Daisy’s autobiography, there is a tense description of the relationship that existed between the young woman and her adopted mother brought on by a disagreement relating to her father’s military service.
In contrast, there were hints of disdain that became apparent when, Daisy acted in disdain for adopted mother through her dismissal of Susie Smith’s funeral, which she refused to attend. In the final analysis, it would later be the impression left on Daisy by Orlee Smith that had the most potent effect on the woman. Retaining the attitudes and mannerisms taught her by the Orlee, Daisy’ ability to interact in social settings was from the teachings of Orlee. Managing to adapt to the racism in southern Arkansas, was a skill that she learned how to manage from Orlee’s instructions throughout her formative years.
On the whole, being Black in Arkansas meant that there would be no exemption from the demarcation put in place for people of color by the whites. It was typical of Arkansas Blacks to be accused of minor infractions and in turn received extreme convictions for said crimes that usually resulted in death. Generally speaking, Bates was accustomed to the mistreatment of the Negro in all areas of the south. The South’s racial conflict commingled with the death of both of her adopted parents made leaving Huttig an inevitable decision for the young woman.
Given these points, Bates departure from Huttig called for her reconciling her identity with the remainder of the south. He young uneducated woman would have to make decisions on her own without her parents overseeing her decisions in a segregated nation. Vanity would have no merit for her forging her way in the world as a single woman of color. The displacement of vain convictions in support of educational ethics was a desire of Bates. Education was a prominent matter for her often exaggerating her educational credentials to audiences that inquired.
Academic institutions in the south were poor dilapidated building for Blacks; after all southern states identical to Arkansas only constructed shabby compartments. By and large nearly all southern states wasted no time in funding education for Black children. Few states provided books if at all and when it was permitted it was for whites where monies for teaching and training went to train their own. Not only were Negro children ignored for education funding, southern states ignored the need arguing that the Negro was dangerous to the southern composition when taught to read. Given these points, outcomes of these attitudes prevented Negro children from excelling beyond the lower grades.
Most Negro children wanted to read, although their hands were needed in the fields. White schools barely taught their children in Arkansas because of the apportioned resources allocated for the education of the colored students were nil. Bates aspiration for her own education was apparent as she exaggerated credentials voicing that she held a high school diploma. According to ‘Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas’ Bates exaggerated her credentials simply stating that she acquired a high school education. Albeit, this is an honorable feat for the time period when many Blacks were denied school attendance in the rural South, confessions of this magnitude are inconceivable.
What has been proven according to the, ‘The African-American Hall’ is that Arkansas did not prioritize education in any way for any of the state’s children let alone for the Black children. In fact, newspaper records have documented that Arkansas closed colored schools. Apparently, the reduction in Black education outlets was a deep hurt felt by Daisy that ignited her exceptional need to protest against segregated educational systems in Arkansas.
Chances for the independent lady to move ahead in Huttig were restricted. Nonetheless, the obstacles of segregation, sexism, or ignorance in Huttig, offered the prompts for Daisy to leave backwoods Arkansas. Moving to Little Rock, Arkansas from rustic Huttig paved the way for her to carve out a life position, prestige, and power enabled her to make strides in staggering the segregationist plan for Arkansas’ educational system. The adopted daughter of Orlee Smith was born in Huttig, raised there, confronted racism headlong, resisted the tradition of subjugation finally able to make her way in the world alone.
Bates’ relocation to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1930 set the motion for her position as an activist. The adolescent was single free of parental guidance whose assumed relatives that she had come to know as kin, abstained from social change, retreated to stale customs that acted juxtaposed to the social solutions Daisy aimed to master for the education of the Negro. Before initiating her attacks on the social schema for school reform in Arkansas segregated educational system she would cross paths once again with Lucious Bates. Lucious, son of a preacher, a married -man twelve years her senior was from Mississippi. She first met the man in 1928 at the age
Daisy initially met the newspaperman when she was fifteen. Later she would become his second wife. Bates was a social fixture to the Smith family bringing gifts and trinkets in Huttig. Daisy records in her autobiography, that she began dating the journalist while he was still married to his former wife. When Orlee passed away, the couple planned to marry.
Since Bates first marriage had not ended, Bates and Gatson didn’t wed until March 4,1942 when they eloped to Fordyce, Arkansas to have a marriage ceremony officiated and to escape the righteous opinions of the Black community. The Bates made their home in Little Rock. The scandalous couple had no children.
The newly united couple still maintained aspirations for repairing the educational system problems, galvanizing efforts to change the white supremacy of the south. For L.C. doing this substantial feat for the Negro meant that he would have to start a newspaper in Little Rock. The Bates presumed an apologist disposition for civil rights; however, L.C’s optimism was far reaching. He wanted to prevent his junior bride from domestic work according to her autobiography. In addition to this plan, L, C’s dream for the paper would do three things: first it would educate the Negro, next the newspaper would promote the civil rights agenda, and lastly there would be a direct change in Negro values.
The Bates liquidated property to start the business accounting for its expenses that could assist the growth of the project. Eager to influence the Negro sections of the community the newspaper argued for a stronger approach to drive the civil rights program favoring education. The Bates’ newspaper, ‘State Press’ released its commencing issue in 1941. The gazette ran for eighteen years.
Both Daisy and Lucious saw the Black press as the conduit to give voice to the Negro perspective. Although segregation separated white from black it yoked special members of the Negro populace together through elitism. This breed of people fit into the machination of Daisy Bates longed for the arrival of the long awaited attack on the Arkansas segregated educational system.
Using the newspaper and her position of editor gave Daisy a platform as a civil rights activist, fighting for equality in education. Not long after Daisy Bates affiliated herself with the popular community associations, becoming a trusted community leader. Bates was chosen for the position of president of the local Little Rock branch of the NAACP in 1952.
Two years later, Daisy Bates would use the increasing debates for segregation and desegregation to launch an attack on the Arkansas Public School System’s segregation. With the 1954 Board v. Board of Education ruling mandating school integration, she pursued nine African-American children that she could mentor for the social project. Locating students that she could train for the racial exercise was particular choosing children with strong academic ability able to adapt to strenuous emotional strains.
It was at a weekly NAACP meeting, where Bates’ charm and beauty convinced nine Little Rock parents to buy into the proposition of challenging the racist authorities to effectively coerce the Arkansas governor along with the Arkansas Public School System to desegregate its Central High School. The nine students would be withdrawn from their respective schools to enroll in the Little Rock Central High School. The children were instructed by Bates, who viewed these behaviors as tremendous social change.
The pressure on the students was immense making community leaders reconsider if this would have a reverse effect on Little Rock. Whites asserted imperious insinuations at the thought of Bates integrating the Central High School. The co-publisher was at the core of the school integration catastrophe in Little Rock in September 1957.
Education in Arkansas, according to Daisy, required an integrated education for its Negro student population that would align with the federal mandate. As a relentless fighter for Negro education in Arkansas, she pressed forward in overthrowing the racist regime. Bates became the mentor to nine African-American students, who enrolled in Little Rock’s Central High School. These nine students would later become known as the Little Rock Nine.
The co-publisher mentored the children, teaching them how to respond to insults, encouraging the African –American students to focus on the overall purpose for which they were chosen. The children: Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Beals arrived at the Little Rock Central High School. Governor Faubus interrupted the successful implementation of racial integration ordering the National Guard 101st Airborne Division to block the one African-American girl who made her way to the steps.
Arkansas closed all of its schools for a year. A legal battle brought the situation to a halt for white supremacist’s children for a year. Governor Faubus restrained the passing of the intended Blossom Plan that would slowly permit small numbers of African-American students to gradually integrate. Daisy’s long fought battle for Negro education came to an end in January 1961 inviting Negro students to integrate the Central High School in the Little Rock Public School System. Bates’ opposition petitioned the federal government, yet Bates solid petition that demanded education equality outlasted the supremacy fight. Bates died November 4, 1999 at the age of eighty-four.