calsfoundation@cals.org
May 7, 2011
While Daisy Bates receives most of the attention for her actions during the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, she received assistance from her husband, L. C. Bates, who began his war against inequality with the publication of the Arkansas State Press newspaper beginning in 1941. His position as a member of the executive council of the Little Rock chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) put him in a position of influence during the Central High crisis. In 1956, Bates was one of the plaintiffs in Aaron v. Cooper, which was filed by the NAACP demanding enforcement of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.