Daisy Bates House

Daisy Bates House

Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, served as a liaison between the local school board and the Little Rock Nine, speaking on behalf of the students.

As the president of the Arkansas state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branches, Daisy Bates symbolized the legal fight to desegregate the public schools after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that found segregated schools unconstitutional.

Mrs. Bates combined her public roles as the state NAACP president and co-publisher (with her husband) of the Arkansas State Press to become a mentor to the nine teenagers (now known as the Little Rock Nine) who ultimately desegregated Central High School.

She was also responsible for arranging a multiracial group of ministers to escort the nine students into school on the morning of September 4, 1957

Her home was a sanctuary for the nine students involved. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

It is private property and is not open to the public.