Daisy Bates (1914-1999), Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, 2014.

Photo date unknown. Daisy Bates, born Daisy Lee Gatson, was a prominent civil rights leader and advocate in Arkansas as well as the entire country in the mid-1900s. Eager to leave the palce of her birth, Huttig, AR, she married Lucious Christopher "L.C." Bates, an insurance agent and journalist. They moved to Little Rock, AR in the early 1940s and together ran the Arkansas State Press, a local black newspaper. Daisy was also the president of the NAACP Arkansas branch from 1952-1961. Daisy became a national symbol during the 1957 desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School. Daisy also played an important role in not only getting the Little Rock Nine into Central High but also the media coverage of the crisis. Sadly, it is because of her involvement that the Bateses were forced to close their beloved newspaper in 1959. Not letting this keep her down, Daisy would go on to write 'The Long Shadow of Little Rock' in 1960, a memoir about her experience dealing with the desegregation crisis at Central High. She also went on to become the only female to speak at the March on Washington for jobs & freedom in August 1963. She passed away in 1999 and was honored in the Robinson Auditorium at Little Rock Central High School May 2000 where the then-President Bill Clinton acknowledged her achievements.