Bates, Daisy Lee (1914–1999)

American civil-rights activist. Name variations: Daisy Gatson Bates, Mrs. L.C. Bates. Born Daisy Lee Gatson, Nov 11, 1914, in Huttig, Arkansas; died Nov 4, 1999, in Little Rock, Arkansas; adopted by Orlee and Susan Smith as an infant; attended Shorter College and Philander Smith College, both in Little Rock; m. L(ucius) C(hristopher) Bates, 1941 (died Aug 1980).

As teenager, moved to Memphis and graduated from high school there (1934); married, moved to Little Rock and, with husband, founded Arkansas State Press (1941); elected Arkansas state president of NAACP branches (1952); led in effort to integrate all grades of Little Rock public schools (1956); served as spokeswoman, counselor, "surrogate mother" for the "Little Rock Nine" students chosen to pioneer the integration of Central High (1957); worked successfully with NAACP lawyers to reverse Governor Faubus' segregation orders (Sept 1957); became target for segregationists (1957–59); arrested and fined for resisting city ordinance requiring disclosure of names of NAACP members and contributors to city council (US Supreme Court reversed conviction in Bates v. Little Rock, 1960); saw State Press bankrupted by advertisers boycott (Oct 30, 1959); moved to NY to write memoirs and continue civil-rights activism (1960); enlisted by Kennedy Administration to work in voter registration project, Democratic National Committee; named director of Mitchelville, Arkansas, Office of Economic Opportunity during Johnson Administration (1964); worked with O.E.O. officials and others in community revitalization project in Mitchelville; made headlines during Nixon administration, protesting Nixon's cancellation of O.E.O. programs; received more than 210 different awards. Author of The Long Shadow of Little Rock (McKay, 1962).

See also Women in World History.