Today In Black History
Daisy Bates, Civil Rights Activist
Issue #474 Today In Black History, Thursday, January 25, 2024
Today’s Black History WOW!
Daisy Gatson Bates was an influential African American civil rights activist, journalist, and publisher. She was the only woman allowed to speak at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and then she could say only 200 words. Bates was born on November 11, 1914, in Huttig, Arkansas, and attended Shorter College in North Little Rock.
When Daisy Gatson was an infant, her mother Millie Riley was raped, murdered, and thrown into a millpond by three white men who were never prosecuted.
Daisy was 17 when she started dating Lucius Christopher Bates, an insurance salesman who had also worked on newspapers in the South and West. In 1941 he moved to Little Rock and started the Arkansas State Press, a newspaper that focused on addressing the issues of African Americans and challenging racial segregation. Daisy and L.C. Bates married on March 4, 1942.
Together they became prominent figures in the civil rights movement. They later became joint owners and publishers of the Arkansas State Press, and through her writing, Bates fearlessly exposed racial injustices and promoted the equal rights of all citizens.
In 1952, Daisy Bates was elected president of the Arkansas Conference of NAACP branches.
Bates is best known for her role in the Little Rock Nine crisis. In 1957, nine African American students attempted to enroll in the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This event resulted in a heated confrontation between those supporting desegregation and those opposing it. As the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Bates played a critical role in supporting and guiding the students. She provided them with shelter, encouragement, and protection, facing harassment and threats herself.
Her involvement in the Little Rock Nine crisis garnered national attention and brought the issue of racial segregation to the forefront of American consciousness. Bates's bravery and determination inspired many others to join the fight for civil rights.
Bates continued to fight for school integration, voting rights, and equal employment opportunities. She remained committed to promoting social justice until her death on November 4, 1999.
Today In Black History
- In 1851, Sojourner Truth addressed the first Black Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
- In 1890, one of the earliest civil rights organizations, the National Afro-American League was founded in Chicago, with Joseph C. Price, the president of Livingstone College, becoming the first president.
- In 1966, Constance Baker Motley became the first African American woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship.
- In 1971, Major General Idi Amin completed a military coup in Uganda.
- In 1972, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New York, began her campaign for President of the United States.
- In 1980, Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first Black-owned company to be listed on the NYSE, began broadcasting from Washington, D.C.
- In 1999, Rev. Henry Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, went on trial for 54 counts of embezzlement, bank/wire fraud, and extortion.
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