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Remembering Daisy…
Daisy Bates left us on a Thursday morning,
exactly five months and 23 days ago. And, while I
miss her greatly, I also vividly remember the last
time I saw her. It was here in Little Rock, a
cloudless September day in 1997. She sat on
the stage at Central High School, graceful and
beautiful, wearing that indelible Daisy smile, as
she witnessed the historic celebration of the 40th
Anniversary of the Integration of Central High.
Though her long illness had stolen her once
arresting voice, her eyes were still as expressive
as ever. They were filled with pride as each of the
members of the Little Rock Nine marched onto stage,
and later, as Central High's Principal Howard,
Governor Huckabee, Mayor Daley and President
Clinton stood at the school's entrance, welcoming
each of the nine into the school - this time
with applause and loud cheers. As I looked
into Daisy's eyes that day, they shone bright, and
whispered, "You done good."
Even with her debilitating stroke in the prime
of her life, Daisy Bates, at her frailest, was a
symbol of strength. At her harshest, her loving
spirit, and warmth engulfed us. In the
earliest days of her struggles, she was a visionary
- realizing the value of a quality education, not
just to a community, but to a country, and a
world.
While it is always good to come, it was more
than "home" that that drew me to Little Rock,
Arkansas today. It was my deep desire to pay
tribute to a woman so important to Arkansas, a
woman born less than 100 miles from our state
capitol. I came here today because
Daisy Bates, an orphan raised by her parent's best
friends, somehow found the courage to change life
as we knew it in Arkansas, and help rewrite not
just this state's history, but American
history.
Daisy wrote in her Memoirs, "More than any other
single event in many years, Little Rock
demonstrated the gaping discrepancy between the
declaration of Independence - one of the precious
documents of American history, and the reality of
Twentieth Century America."
The most prolific of writers could never have
created a story as incredible as the life that
Daisy Bates lived. A young girl born, in 1914 in
the sawmill town of Huttig, Arkansas, her childhood
marred by her mother's violent death by whites,
then a metamorphosis so great as to propel her into
a catalyst of change in America's civil rights
struggle.
Who would have believed that this
same motherless orphan would become the first, and only woman
pilot in the Arkansas Civil Air Patrol during World War II;
the fifth recipient in history to receive the Margaret Chase
Smith Award; the first woman to address the Massachusetts
State Senate, and be awarded the Senate gavel made from the
Battleship USS Constitution; and the only woman to address the
hundreds of thousands of black and white Americans in
attendance at the historical March on Washington, led by the
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our Daisy Bates, like the great women she called
friends, Rosa Parks and First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt, was, like them a courageous trailblazer.
Few people realize that her first test in the civil
rights arena was her instrumental role in the
desegregation of the Little Rock bus system in
1956. Only following that courageous effort would
she take her rightful place at the helm of the
historical 1957 integration Crisis of Little Rock
Central High.
Who would have dreamed that this child who grew
up poor, attending segregated schools, using
textbooks passed down from white schools, would, as
an adult, choose conciliation, rather than
condemnation? Peace, rather than
conflict? Integration, rather than
segregation? Who would have dreamed that her
small, but effective voice would one day move the
masses to introspection, then change?
As President of the Arkansas Chapter of the
NAACP for six years, advisor to the Little Rock
Nine during that dark period in our history; and
co-publisher, with her husband, L.C., of the
historic Arkansas State Press; Daisy Bates played a
pivotal role in hurrying history along, when many
would have preferred that it stand still.
While we cannot think of the Civil Rights
movement in Arkansas, the south, or this country,
without, thinking of Daisy Bates; it is important
we not forget a darker side of what her courage
netted her - like the many years of ostracism by
those who believed in the status quo; the violence
and harassment that included overt threats, crosses
burned in her yard, and stones thrown through her
windows. And, the withdrawal of advertising dollars
by local businesses - effectively closing the doors
of Arkansas's only black newspaper for almost three
decades. Yet, in spite of it all - or maybe
because of it - Daisy Bates continued to fight her
fight, with grace and determination.
Daisy Bates was more than just a mentor to the
nine students seeking to integrate Central
High. She was an unwitting mentor to people
like me, who watched and learned from her tireless
work, her commitment to empowering the poor and
disenfranchised.
We were all amazed at her tireless energy and
drive to "right" the wrongs of our society.
She taught us all a lesson of spirituality, when
she recycled the hatred and anger that consumed her
childhood, into a commitment to conciliation and
justice, of erasing the hate that caused the
horrors she experienced as a child.
She inspired us all during the years of civil
unrest and struggle; and, when we were in her
presence, we felt more hopeful about the direction
the state was moving.
There was never a doubt that Daisy Bates loved
this state and this country, in spite of its
shortcomings. In her memoir, she wrote: "I am not
proud of the fact that when people talk about our
state, they invariably associate the worst of our
times as a primary point of reference, as if there
are no other positive identifiers for
Arkansas." But, she continued, Arkansas is
"the home of my birth, my growth, my identity as a
woman in this world . . . it has claimed me from
birth and I have claimed it for life."
We can all be grateful to Daisy that much has
changed for the better since her civil rights
journey began almost 60 years ago. Many of
her dreams have been attained. Yet, we must
also be truthful. There is still much to be done.
But, It is only with the spirit and drive of a
Daisy Bates, that we will be able to finish the
last lap of her race. It will only be by the
light that shone so bright inside of her, that we
will be able to see the good in the least of us,
and to see the wrong in what too many of us
ignore.
As I remember the woman who touched so many of
our lives, I am reminded of the Old Testament
Scripture [Matthew 5:14-16]:
. . . You are the light of the world. A city
that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they
light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a
lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in
the house. Let your lamp so shine before men, that
they may see your good works, and glorify our
Father in Heaven.
I don't think anyone could have said it better
than Daisy's longtime friend, U.S. Congressman Ray
Thornton, who wrote in the foreword of Daisy's
memoir, The Long Shadow of Little Rock,
"During a critical period in the history of our
state, Daisy Bates charged into the heart of a
gathering storm of intolerance and prejudice armed
only with principles of justice, or reason, of
compassion, and of tolerance. Her
leadership, her vision, and her courage have lifted
all of us to a clearer understanding of the dignity
and ultimate value of the human spirit…"
Daisy, small in stature…almost dainty, in
retrospect, was a giant in so many ways. She
said, recently, "When we took on segregation in the
Little Rock schools, I don't think we had any big
idea that we were gonna win it, but they were gonna
know they had had a fight!"
Our task - the task Daisy left to us - is to
address the problems of this 21st Century - such as
the still huge economic gap between the haves and
have-nots; the new techno-social problem of the
digital divide; the haunting remnants of this
country's race problem, and the health disparities
between the rich and poor - with the same
conviction and courage as she attacked the problems
of inequality in education, and racial
discrimination in the 20th Century. We owe
that to ourselves, our future inheritors of this
world, and to Daisy.
For her devotion to this state, this community,
and our world; for her convictions to righting
life's wrongs, and her hard-fought efforts to level
the playing field for all, I think we all agree
with me as I say, "Daisy, you done good."
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