From the Arkansas Advocate:
The home of the late civil rights leader Daisy Bates, where the Little Rock Nine met each morning during the desegregation of Central High School, was recognized with a new state marker honoring its significance Tuesday.
The blue marker unveiled at Bates’ home located in south Little Rock was the latest one unveiled as part of the commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Bates, who owned the Arkansas State Press with her husband L.C., mentored the nine Black students who desegregated Central High. Her home, which was built in 1955, was where the students were dropped off in the morning and picked up at the end of the day.
“I sometimes felt that this house in 1955 was built for the purpose that it was used,” said Mary Hardin, who first met the Bateses as a high school student and is now a tour guide at the house. “It was the command post for desegregation.”
Monday in Arkansas was a state holiday honoring Bates along with George Washington, and a 2019 law replaced one of Arkansas’ two statues at the U.S. Capitol with one depicting the civil rights leader. Bates, who was president of the Arkansas NAACP, was the only woman to speak from the main stage of the 1963 March on Washington.
Her home is a national historic landmark and is maintained and promoted by the nonprofit L.C. and Daisy Bates Foundation. Charles King, the foundation’s president, said the home receives visitors from as far away as Saudi Arabia who want to know more about the state’s civil rights history.
Indoors, the museum is restored to look as it did in 1957 and includes memorabilia about Bates and Central High.
King said the foundation would eventually like to add a visitor’s center to help preserve the home and handle the influx of visitors.
“They come from all around the world,” King said. “It’s unfortunate but people in other parts of the world know more about Mrs. Bates, her struggle and the home than Little Rock people do. We want Little Rock people to be just as knowledgeable and today is going to help make that happen a little more.”
The Bates marker is the second of 11 that the Arkansas 250 Commission plans to unveil as part of the 250th celebration. The first marker was unveiled last year in Bauxite to commemorate its role in providing bauxite ore for aircraft production during World War II.
“Daisy Bates put her career, her property, her safety and even her own life on the line for a very simple principle,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the marker’s unveiling. “That every child should be treated the same regardless of the color of their skin.”
