Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas

Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies

by Grif Stockley

Daisy Bates (1914-1999) is renowned as the mentor of the Little Rock Nine, the first African Americans to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. For guiding the Nine through one of the most tumultuous civil rights crises of the 1950s, she was selected as Woman of the Year in Education by the Associated Press in 1957 and was the only woman invited to speak at the Lincoln Memorial ceremony in the March on Washington in 1963. But her importance as a historical figure has been overlooked by scholars of the civil rights movement.

Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas chronicles her life and political advocacy before, during, and well after the Central High School crisis. An orphan from the Arkansas mill town of Huttig, she eventually rose to the zenith of civil rights action. In 1952, she was elected president of the NAACP in Arkansas and traveled the country speaking on political issues. During the 1960s, she worked as a field organizer for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to get out the black vote. Even after a series of strokes, she continued to orchestrate self-help and economic initiatives in Arkansas.

Using interviews, archival records, contemporary news-paper accounts, and other materials, author Grif Stockley reconstructs Bates's life and career, revealing her to be a complex, contrary leader of the civil rights movement. Ultimately, Daisy Bates paints a vivid portrait of an ardent, overlooked advocate of social justice.

Grif Stockley is a staff attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. He is the author of several books, including Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919, Blind Judgment, Probable Cause, and Expert Testimony. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Genres: History, Biography, Race

340 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2005

About the author

Stockley is the author of several books, including Race Relations in the Natural State; Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas, winner of the Ragsdale Award from the Arkansas Historical Association and the Arkansiana Award from the Arkansas Library Association and Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919, winner of the Booker Worthen Prize from the Central Arkansas Library System and recipient of a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. An attorney who has worked with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services, the Disability Rights Center, and the Arkansas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Stockley completed Ruled by Race while serving as a historian and curriculum specialist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock.

Reviews

[Apriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is informative but not exactly a page turner and reads like a research paper, which I suppose it sort of is. A more skilled writer could have turned the same information into a more compelling narrative of Bates' life IMO.

[ashlyn compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice to learn about daisy bates

[Matthew Olgin · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book had so much potential, but contained a lot of filler material. the sections regarding the little rock nine and her involvement with the NAACP were interesting. if Daisy Bates was in actuality like the author presents her, she may have been a big player in the civil rights movements, but she seemed to be doing it for her own benefit and celebrity once the central high actions ended. she comes across as extremely self-centered. L.C. comes across as a hero for having to put up with her.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been a lot better. I was quite bogged down by "slush" information. However if Daisy Bates is how this author described her, Daisy was not the "crusader" that the title suggests.