Daisy Bates - played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957
After having learned at 8 years old that her mother was brutally raped and murdered by three European men, Daisy Bates dedicated her life to fighting inequality. She was an American civil rights activist, journalist, lecturer, and a woman who played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. When she was just 15, Daisy met her future husband and settled in Little Rock, Arkansas where they started their own newspaper, The Arkansas Weekly. It was one of the only African American newspapers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. Daisy, naturally, also worked with Civil Rights organizations. She was the President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for many years. After the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional back in 1954, Daisy began gathering African American students to enroll in European schools. Those who didn't want to accept African students were published in her newspaper. Even though she faced a lot of rejection, Daisy never backed down