One Person . . . Making a
Difference
Delivered by Janis F. Kearney at
Daisy Bates Memorial, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
Spring, 2000
Good afternoon. It's wonderful being here with
old friends, old professors on my old stumping
ground. It is wonderful being here with old
friends, old professors on my old stomping ground.
I spent many a day walking across this campus, through this
very building; a Spanish class, a communications
law class…Each time I've returned, I realize
how much like home it feels once I set foot on
these grounds.
It's good to be home.
It's especially good to be here, Michael
Debrishus, on this day you have chosen to
memorialize a great woman who also happened to be a
mentor, a friend and a mother figure for me. The
beautiful, indomitable civil rights heroine Daisy
Lee Gaston Bates deserves such a day.
Thank you, Michael, for asking me to be here
and, for making sure I got here. Thank you and your
staff for your kindness and patience over the last
few weeks as we worked out the logistics of this
trip. As most of you know, the route from
Washington, D.C. to Fayetteville, Arkansas is not a
simple one.
And, while I'm at it, I would be remiss if I
didn't recognize and thank someone who has for the
last 10 years or so, made such an important
difference in this University of Arkansas,
Chancellor John White. Thank you, Dr. White, for
honoring Daisy Bates by acknowledging her
contributions here today. Thank, you, also for your
kind words.
Dr. White, I realized some time ago that you
were a visionary, when you announced your campaign
to increase the number of African American students
on your campus; and, when you matched that with a
promise to increase the amount of scholarship funds
to help those students get here.
So, I personally thank you for your visions of
increasing the diversity on the University of
Arkansas campus, something I believe, in the end,
makes for a richer academic experience for all
students; and, contributes to a better state as
well. Daisy, I know is up there with that
magnanimous smile of hers, charming the other
angels as she lauds you for your courageous vision.
For, there is nothing so important in Daisy Bates'
life of service, than education of our young.
My boss…you know, that guy who works out of
the oval office, has this saying: Opportunity
without responsibility is a recipe for failure."
Dr. White, not only are you giving students an
opportunity with your scholarship, you placed the
onus on them, their parents and Arkansas school.
They all share a responsibility to produce the
honor students we know are children are capable of
becoming.
Daisy Bates smiles on you as you say to black
students across the stat that it's not that we're
forced to admit you, we want you her for what you
can contribute and believe you have what it takes
to step up to the plate. I want to finally, point
out someone who made an extraordinary impact on me
during my years here at the University. Dr. Miller
Williams, who was my creative writing teacher
during my years here as a journalism student, and
my only fault with him was that he didn't teach
enough classes for me to take a different one each
semester.
The thing I will always thank Miller Williams
for, I think I can call him that now; is for helping me realize my own
possibilities. For showing me it was okay to see
myself as something others around me couldn't see.
I thank him for saying through his objective
critique of my writing that it was okay that a
black sharecroppers' daughter wanted to be a
writer.
Dr. White, I spent two and a half years at this
University trying to find out what in the world I
could be, since writing was out of the question.
Finally, in my third year here, and after
accumulating some not so honorable grades, I was
convinced that writing was probably the only thing
I could do. Dr. Miller Williams was the one who
made me believe that I could write if I had the
persistence to work at it.
How I wish I still had the short story I wrote
that first week in Miller Williams' class, and the
words of encouragement that he wrote outside the
margins.
So, after saying all
that…throughout my life I have had the opportunity to meet
these visionaries who helped change my life; in
small, and in big ways. And, I think what this day
is about, and the reason we are honoring Daisy
Bates today, is that she was such a visionary, and
she made such a huge difference in so many of our
lives. In spite of the horror that defined her own
childhood, she maintained a belief in the goodness
of human kind, and she refused to accept the idea
that a person's skin color had anything to do with
their worth. She spent her entire life trying to
destroy the myth that color and intellect had
anything to do with one another.
I think most of you have probably
met Daisy Bates at one time or another, or at least laid eyes
on her. Most of you know that she was one of those very
petite, delicate women; with a giant personality, a giant
heart, and a lion's courage. And, let's hope that Arkansas
history has treated her fairly and kindly; by documenting how
Daisy Lee Gaston Bates helped change life in
Arkansas and in America as we knew it, during the
Integration Crisis of 1957.
For certain, she lived an
extraordinary life. She was one of those people who you say to
yourself, God only made one of her because the world wouldn't
know what to do with another one. She had the kind of beauty
that struck men and women and you found yourself drawn to her;
even when you learned that you were the
target of her wrath. She was a "one of a kind," in
a world full of the status quo.
But, the amazing thing about life is: It takes
just one person in our lives to make a dramatic
change. Just one person can touch our lives in
irrevocable ways and nothing is ever the same. That
is the way that Daisy Bates touched my life. She
was all I ever wanted to be, and more. Her courage
was something to emulate, her intelligence, her
sharp intuition of good and bad. Daisy Bates was
blessed with an extraordinary gift. It was as if
she had been tapped early on in life with a promise
of greatness…and, you can bet she lived up to
it.
Throughout history, we learn
that there is always that one person that stands out, or stand
above the rest; changing the direction of
politics, the direction of our society, and our
world. Such visionaries that come to mind are
people like South African President Nelson Mandela,
Mother Teresa, Mahatma Handy, President John F. Kennedy,
Albert Einstein, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and
one day in history, William Jefferson Clinton's name will be
included in that number; along with our indelible Daisy.
There have been so many wonderful people over
the years, participating in my life's successes.
Coming form a family of 18, I guess that should
have been a given. But, I mean people other than my
wonderful parents and siblings. There were the
teachers and friends I've met during my journey,
who said one thing that stayed with me forever, or
who was there when no one else was. And, there were
those who gave me that one opportunity to prove
something to myself and to the world. And, lastly,
those who simply lived their lives in a way to make
me believe like Daisy, in the goodness of human
kind.
Daisy Bates, in fact was all of those things and
more at one time or another in my life. She
inspired me before I met her. She was someone I
wanted to emulate in my life…such courage and
grace, persistence in the face of danger to her own
and her family's lives.
There is no question that Daisy Bates gave up a
life that would have been kinder, more comfortable
and more profitable in choosing to help change the
world for people like us.
In 1987, this amazing woman gave me an
opportunity of a lifetime, when she asked me to
take up the helm of the Arkansas State Press
Newspaper…to serve my community in a way that
I had never imagined I would. We all have
experienced the times in our lives when something
inside us tells us there is something we're
supposed to be doing at that specific time in our
lives. Some contribution we should be making, but
we just can't seem to figure out what it is.
Well, in my case, back in 1987, Daisy Bates
helped me figure it out. She actually told me what
my mission was, and the exact way in which I was to
serve. She gave me the greatest Daisy Bates
compliment ever the day she sold her newspaper to
me. She smiled that Daisy Bates smile and said:
Now, I can go home and rest. I've found someone
with the fire in the belly it takes to run a
newspaper. I will never be able to properly thank
her for the trust and love and guidance during
those years.
Can anyone forget that Daisy Bates
smile…you never could figure out whether she
was smiling with you or laughing inside at you. We
were all students at her size 51/2 feet.
She changed this world for so many people. She
moved the rung of expectations up for African
Americans and for all people. She asked the $64
million dollar question over and over again: Why?
Why were rules for some and not others?
Why did we expect success from some of our
children and accept mediocrity from the rest?
Why didn't parents demand more from their
children, when our children represent our future?
Daisy Bates, to her last breath never stopped
asking why.
She taught me, and I believe she taught many of
you the same lesson: It takes just one person to
change lives, directions, wrongs to right. And, it
doesn't have to be a genius or a rich man or the
most popular person in the world. It doesn't even
have to be someone as beautiful and articulate as
Daisy Bates. But, it does have to be someone with
that fire in their belly, and the courage to never
stop asking, why.
It has to be someone who believes very, very
deeply and who never lets up, and never changes to
appease a group or friends or even a boss. It has
to be someone who just never stops being who they
are…someone like Daisy Bates.
An anonymous writer penned this short piece:
Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent
cannot. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful
men with talent. Genius cannot. Unrewarded genius
is almost a cliché. Education cannot. The
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence
and determination alone are omnipotent.
As we celebrate Daisy Bates' life, today, I
would challenge the academic community, whom Daisy
held in such high esteem; as well as the community
at large, to remember this great woman through your
actions, not just in your hearts. We can all
contribute something toward making this a better
world…a place Daisy would smile down on. WE
all owe her at least that much.
Thank you, my friends, for inviting me here. It
has truly been a pleasure and an honor to join
you.