(TriceEdneyWire.com) – We have not had a lot in the news lately about which we could cheer, but we’re blessed that occasionally there’s something we can call positive. May 8 was such a day. A memorial to Daisy Bates was celebrated in the U.S. Capitol. It was a long time coming, but it finally happened!
The strangest thing about the program were the people whose fore parents were totally opposed to the work Daisty Bates did when she became a leader and key supporter of the nine students, who integrated Little Rock Central High School, in the 1957-58 school year attended the ceremony. That included the current governor and congressman of Arkansas.
Benjamin Victor, the artist who did the sculpture, did a masterful job on the full body bronze statue of Daisy Bates. The statue is located in Statuary Hall in the Capitol. Daisy Bates and her husband, L.C. Bates, were publishers of the Arkansas State Press. They were leaders in their community. They had the courage to use their newspaper to focus on the African American community and their civil rights.
While her husband worked for the NAACP and she served on its board, she took a public role in voter registration, anti-poverty programs and once Brown v. Board of Education became law, she took on the role of integrating Central High School – a dangerous undertaking to say the least.
Recently I met three women who lived in Arkansas at the time, and pretty much had a front row place in what was happening. I spoke with Sarah Davidson, Bernice Bass Abner and Janice Kearney who knew a lot about Daisy Bates and talked about how their lives were impacted by her work.
I was still in high school at the time I learned about the leadership of Daisy Bates in working to implement the law on Black and White children attending school together. I learned about the Arkansas governor, Orval Faubus, who was determined to stand in the way of that happening. I remember hearing about the Little Rock 9, and later met some of them. These were the students chosen to go into Central High School and make it their high school, too.
Recently I learned that Abner is the daughter of Rev. William Harry Bass who was called on to accompany the Little Rock 9 children on the first day of school at the segregated Central High School. Of course, the students were not welcomed and did not get into Central High that day.
I met Kearney who is the author of a book about the situation. She’s a former personal diarist to President Bill Clinton and a former publisher who revived the Arkansas Weekly Press founded by the Bates. Their paper once had a nationwide readership of thousands. She also published a creative non-fiction book on the life of Daisy Bates, a civil rights legend. It’s called A Rock and A Hard Place.
Davidson grew up in Arkansas and knows a lot about Daisy Bates’ work to integrate the schools. She was a civil rights advocate and social justice fighter at an early age. Her contributions became a catalyst that would change the course of history in her hometown. She was mentored by Daisy Bates, established the North Little Rocks’ first NAACP Youth Council and served as its first president. She was strongly touched seeing the four Black women with memorials in the Capitol and was honored to participate in the unveiling of the memorial. She was nominated by former Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln to serve on the Congressional Task Force for a Memorial to Slaves who helped to build the Capitol – a significant fact often forgotten in our history. Let’s vote to remedy that!
Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. is a United Nations Peace Ambassador, an accomplished attorney, entrepreneur, civic leader and activist. Williams is also president of The Dick Gregory Society and President Emeritus of the National Congress of Black Women. She can be reached through https://www.drefayewilliams.com and https://www.thedickgregorysociety.org.