Daisy Bates’s Choice

Daisy Bates and her husband, Lucious Christopher (L. C.) Bates, owned The Arkansas State Press, an African American newspaper that focused on civil rights issues within the state’s Black community. Daisy, who was also president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, was the Little Rock Nine’s mentor. She arranged tutoring for the nine during the weeks that the Arkansas National Guard blocked their entry to Central High School, organized press conferences with the media, and met with Superintendent Virgil Blossom to advocate for the students’ safety at school. During the 1957–58 school year, the Little Rock Nine met each day after school at the Bateses’ home to debrief their day. 

In this excerpt from her memoir, Daisy Bates describes an interaction she had before the school year began with an unfamiliar visitor who knocked on her front door. ¹  

She was a middle-aged woman. She told me that she represented a group of “Southern Christian women'” who had delegated her to appeal to me “as a Southern woman.” They wanted to know if I would use my influence to get Negro children to withdraw their applications to Central High School. “This would give us time to prepare the community for integration,” she exclaimed. “We need time.”

“How much time?” I asked her. She couldn’t say. That would be determined later. If I agree to her plan now, we could start working together. 

Next, she recommended that I call a press conference and announce that “for the good of the community” I was withdrawing my support from the students and was going to advise them to return to the Negro schools. My visitor kindly cautioned that I would no doubt be criticized in the North for this decision. But I was not to worry because the “Southern Christian women” would stand by me …

Finally, I asked the question: “You told me what would happen if I withdrew my support from the students. What would happen if I didn’t?”

She looked me straight in the eye. “You’ll be destroyed—you, your newspaper, your reputation.” Looking around the living-room, she added, “Everything!”

Before my visitor left, she gave me her telephone number. “You’ll have until nine o’clock tomorrow morning to give us your answer … ”

I began to think that in the struggle for freedom there could be no turning back, no strategic withdrawals, subterfuges, or compromises. What I was going to tell my “Southern Christian” friend was now perfectly clear.

Promptly at 9 am, I telephoned her as we had agreed and informed her that I had arrived at an answer to her plea. My answer, I told her, was “No!” …

L.C. [Daisy Bates’s husband] had not known about the visit of the Southern gentlewoman. Now I was eager to report the incident and tell him about my decision. … At stake was the life of the State Press. L.C. had to know. I hastened to the State Press office. 

When I finished the story, L.C. rose from his desk, walked to the window and gazed reflectively at the outdoors. I simply watched him and said nothing. The only sounds that were heard came from the presses that were turning out a fresh edition of our newspaper. At that moment I wondered for how long the machines would continue to do their work for us. I was sure that the same thoughts were now going through L.C.’s mind. 

Finally he turned, gripping the chair back so that the veins in his hands stood out prominently and looked down at me with a tired, defeated expression on his face. I tried to say it was the only decision I could make. But he waved his hand to silence me. “No, Daisy, you did the right thing.” 

He said nothing more. He simply went back to his desk and shuffled a few papers he had been working on when I came to talk with him. I made no effort to discuss the matter further, because when he sat down at his desk I saw tears in his eyes. 

Within weeks, The Arkansas State Press began receiving notes from business firms and advertising agencies canceling their advertising contracts. Without advertisement revenue, the newspaper struggled to make a profit, and by October 1959, it went out of business. 

• 1Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (New York: Van Rees Press, 1962), 170–76.