24/05/2024
“At 9:22 a.m. the nine Negro pupils marched solemnly through the doors of Central High School, surrounded by twenty-two [101st Airborne] soldiers. An Army helicopter circled overhead. Around the massive brick schoolhouse 350 paratroopers stood grimly at attention. Scores of reporters, photographers, and TV cameramen made a mad dash for telephones, typewriters, and TV studies, and within minutes a world that had been holding its breath learned that the nine pupils, protected by the might of the United States military, had finally entered the ‘never-never land.’” — Daisy Bates, “The Long Shadow of Little Rock” (1962)
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (1914-1999) was an owner and editor of The Arkansas Weekly newspaper and president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
In 1957, Bates strategized and selected nine students who became known as the Little Rock Nine to integrate Central High School. She, the students and their families, friends and colleagues faced violent opposition and she and other local NAACP officials were arrested for refusing to disclose member and donor information. Bates triumphed over all efforts to stop school integration in Arkansas and continued to fight for civil rights nationwide.
On May 8, a bronze statue of Daisy Bates, sculpted by artist Benjamin Victor, was unveiled by Arkansas as a gift to the National Statuary Hall Collection.
To see this statue and to learn more about this amazing civil rights hero, join us for a Capitol tour.
https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/
