May 21, 1954

Four days after the decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which declared an end to racial segregation in public schools, the Arkansas State Press, a newspaper founded by civil rights pioneers L. C. and Daisy Bates, editorialized, “We feel that the proper approach would be for the leaders among the Negro race—not clabber mouths, Uncle Toms, or grinning appeasers to get together and counsel with the school heads.” For the next five years, until its demise in 1959, the State Press was the sole newspaper in Arkansas to demand an immediate end to segregated schools.