Victor is working on the clay model from which the bronze statue will be cast. In her right hand, she is holding a notebook and pen to show that she is a journalist.” I saw this beautiful photo of her holding the newspaper in her hand as she walks and leads a crowd behind her. She was in motion and action for her cause. “I wanted to show her in motion walking because she was an activist,” Victor said. The statue will show Bates in motion with one foot stepping forward, dressed in a business suit while holding a notebook and pen in her right hand and a newspaper in her left hand. Bates, who served as president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is also famous for her role in organizing the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School by nine Black students in 1957. It would become the largest Black-owned newspaper in Arkansas. Bates, launched the Arkansas Weekly, an African American newspaper dedicated to the civil rights movement.
He was commissioned by the National Statuary Hall Steering Committee and the Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to create a 7-foot-6-inch bronze sculpture of Bates, a renowned civil rights activist.īates will be one of the first Black women to be featured in Statuary Hall. Victor would know well since the Bates statue is the fourth statue he’s created for Statuary Hall. I can’t imagine any person more worthy than Daisy Bates of being immortalized in Statuary Hall.” “When I read about her life and legacy and accomplishments, I know it will take the best of me in order to do justice to her spirit and legacy. Capitol, has been inspired by Bates for many years. Civil Rights Trail can be found at Victor, the artist chosen to create a bronze statue of Daisy Bates for the U.S. More history can also be found at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a museum that tells the story of Arkansas's African-American heritage and culture. This school was a major test in 1957 when nine (the Little Rock Nine) black students integrated the all-white school.The school is now the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site and more about the place it holds in history can be found across the street at their visitor center and museum, which offers ranger-led tours of the school.Ī monument to the Little Rock Nine is also on the trail and can be found on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds. At that time, the country was a nation of racial inequalities and segregation. The school served as one of the first federally ordered integration acts. that has been named a National Historic Site. Little Rock Central High School is also on the trail and holds title as the only operating high school in the U.S. Six of these sites are in Little Rock.īates’s home in Little Rock, which is now known as the Daisy Bates House, is on the trail. Civil Rights Trail, which links the country’s most important civil rights sites, more than100 landmarks sites across 14 states, that were pivotal to the advancement of social equality during the volatile 1950s and 1960s.
People can learn more about influential activists like Bates via the U.S. Throughout her life she continued her active community work and after her passing in 1999, local streets and a school were named after her in Arkansas and the state also officially designated a day in her honor known as Daisy Gatson Bates Day. gave the historic “I Have a Dream” speech. She was a trail blazer of the era in her role as a female civil rights leader and was the lone woman to speak at the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington in 1963, where Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1962 she wrote a book about the Central High School event called The Long Shadow of Little Rock, which eventually won an American Book Award. Bates, by publishing a local newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, that focused on these issues. Bates, who was active in the NAACP and president of the Arkansas chapter, also advocated for civil rights, along with her husband L.C. During this time her home, which is now a National Historic Landmark, became a meeting post for the students. Born in Arkansas, civil rights activist Daisy Bates is known for her role as mentor to the Little Rock Nine during the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis.