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Books by and about Daisy Bates
Long Shadow of Little Rock
(Daisy Bates,1998) /
Daisy Bates Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas
(Grif Sockley, 2005)
The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (Fradin,
2004) /
Young and Black in America
(Julius Lester,1972)
* * * *
* The Death of Daddy
By Daisy Bates (1914-1999)
The summers of the following years, for the
most part, were spent on our farm in eastern Arkansas where my
grandmother lived with a brown hound dog, an old gray riding
horse, a temperamental milk cow, and pigs fattening for winter
meat. Occasionally we would take a trip to other states, or I
would be sent to visit friends or relatives of my parents.
I was in my teens. On one of my visits away
from home my mother sent for me. My father had been taken to the
hospital. When I arrived home, the doctor told me it was just a
matter of time. Daddy was gravely ill. The bottom had dropped
out of my world.
One night Daddy told Mother to go home and
get some sleep. “Daisy will stay with me,” he assured her.
When Mother and the nurse had left, I stood
looking down at his tired dark face against the white of the bed
linen. I saw the wrinkles etched deep by a lifetime of struggle,
and I saw a stubborn chin and proud high forehead. I started to
cry, softly. He opened his eyes. “Don’t cry Daisy,” he
moaned. “I know I’m going to die, but-”
I started to protest, but his upraised hand
stopped me. He knew I knew, and to deny it would make
meaningless the honesty we’d always held to in our lifelong
relationship with each other. He said calmly, “I’ll be
better off.” I knew this was so. He had cancer.
I haven’t much to leave you, Daisy, so come
close and listen and remember what I have to say to you.”
I drew a chair close and place my hand in
his.
“You’re filled with hatred. Hate can
destroy you, Daisy. Don’t hate white people just because
they’re white. If you hate, make it count for something. Hate
the humiliations we are living under in the South. Hate the
discrimination that eats away at the soul of every black man and
woman. Hate the insults hurled at us by white scum--and then try
to do something about it, or your hate won’t spell a thing.”
“I’m listening to every word you say
Daddy, and I’ll try to do what you say. But rest--you must
rest now.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head
impatiently. “I’ll decide when I need rest.”
How I loved this strong man who all his life
had not been able to use his strength in the way he wanted to.
He was forced to suppress it and hold himself back, bow to the
white yoke or be cut down. And now that his life was ebbing, he
was trying to draw on that reservoir of unused strength to give
me a lasting inheritance.
“Daisy,” he resumed, “nothing’s going
to change all of the sudden, and any Negro speaking out alone
will suffer. But more and more will join him, and the blacks,
acting together will one day . . .”
His voice grew faint. I held my breath.
Starting afresh, he continued haltingly, “I remember the day
of your mother’s funeral. I went to the post office for the
mail. I had on my best dark suit. When I came out of the post
office, there were three young white hoodlums standing on the
steps. One of them said, 'Look at that dressed up ape! You live
here, boy?' When I didn’t answer, two of them blocked my path
and the other one said, 'I know what’s wrong, he needs
something red on!' He picked up a brush from a paint bucket left
there by a painter who’s been painting the brick foundation
around the buildings. He painted a red streak down the back of
my coat. Then they walked away, laughing. I stood there with
murder in my heart. I could’ve crushed the life out of him
with my bare hands. But I knew if I touched one hair on his head
I could be lynched.
“On the way home I met one of the deputy
sheriffs. I showed him my coat and told him what had happened.
He laughed and said, 'Don’t get so upset about a little thing
like that. They were just having a little fun. Turpentine will
take the paint out of your coat'.”
Daddy stopped talking and closed his eyes. I
just sat there, constantly patting his hard knuckles, hoping he
would speak again. He did. This time his voice, still distinct,
was softer than before but more labored.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you know later
when you should have died. I ought to have died the day they put
paint on my coat. I should have taken those guys and wrung their
necks like chickens. But I wanted to live--for what, I sometimes
wonder.”
I stopped patting the back of his hand, and
he drifted off into sleep. Looking back at him, I sensed he
would never awaken. It was now nearly daybreak. When the
Catholic Sister came into the room, I greeted her warmly. It was
the first time in several years that I had spoken to a white
person in a pleasant voice.
I walked out into the silent streets. The
grass, heavy with dew, caught the sun’s early rays. In most of
the yards flowers still bloomed, and in many, red roses. I
thought of another such morning years ago, and of the red rose I
couldn’t bare to pick. I knew like that rose which clung to
its branch in a last, flaming farewell, my father would die
before the end of the day. I did not cry for I realized that he
was at peace with himself for the first time in years.
As I walked along the streets taking in the
freshness of the early morning air, I knew that as surely as my
father was dying, I was undergoing a rebirth. My father had
passed on to me a priceless heritage--one that would sustain me
throughout the years to come. * * *
* *
 |
Daisy Bates
Desegregating Little Rock
By Julius Lester
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that
segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This
historic ruling struck at the very core of the social structure
of the South and it was to be expected that many cities and
states would be unwilling to put it into practice. The first big
confrontation came in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the fall of
1957. Nine black students were to enter all-white
Central High School. A few days before school was to open, Orval
Faubus, then governor of Arkansas, ordered the National Guard to
surround the school. He reasoned that violence would occur when
the nine blacks tried to enter the school. However, instead of
ordering the National Guard to stop any violence which might
occur, he ordered the Guard to keep the blacks out of the
school. This was the first open defiance of the Supreme Court
decision by a top state official. |
The nine black students, their parents, and
advisers, had a difficult decision to make. Should the students
still try to enter Central High? It was decided that they
should. When the day came mobs of whites lined the sidewalk and
filled the streets in front of the school. The National Guard
blocked the entrances, pointed bayonets at the black students,
and refused to escort them to safety through the crowd of
whites. As the students tired to make their way through the mob,
they were spat upon and beaten.
The central figure in the drama was Mrs.
Daisy Bates, state president of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. Born and raised in the small town
of Huttig, Arkansas, Daisy Lee Gatson married when she was
eighteen years old and with her husband, L. C. Bates, moved to
Little Rock. There, they decided to assume the ownership of a
weekly newspaper, the State Press. Together, they slowly made the paper into the voice of
blacks in Arkansas, protesting police brutality, the lack of
equal rights in housing, in jobs, and in the courtroom.
In 1952 Mrs. Bates was elected president of
the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP. The NAACP had taken
the lead in the fight for the desegregation of schools. It was
involved in trying to make sure that the 1954 ruling was put
into practice. Such an effort required not only the skills of
lawyers, but also the commitment of many anonymous people, like
Mrs. Bates, who were responsible for building strong
organizations on the local level to prepare for the day when
desegregation came. Just how important such preparation was did
not become clear, however, until the confrontation around
Central High.
When the governor said that there would be no
desegregation, the blacks of Little Rock could either bow their
heads or fight. Much of the burden for the decision was carried
by Mrs. Bates, as a leader of the black community. The decision
to fight placed the lives of all who were involved in danger.
Without the kind of leadership and courage shown by Mrs. Bates,
the ordeal could not have been endured.
Mrs. Bates’ life was constantly threatened and for
many months. She did not leave her home without carrying a gun,
or go to bed at night without armed guards posted outside her
home. The newspaper which she and her husband had built was
forced out of business by whites. Yet Mrs. Bates and the blacks
of Little Rock persevered. Her book, The
Long Shadow of Little Rock is more than a personal story. It
is the story of countless blacks who, in extraordinary times,
have had to show extraordinary courage
Source:
Young and Black in America
(1972), edited by Julius
Lester
* * * *
*
Commentary on Daisy Bates’ How My
Mother Died
By
Amin Sharif
Daisy Bates is representative of the kind of
unselfish black woman raised under the Old South
tradition of racism and segregation. Not a feminist, nor
a womanist--Daisy was a Race woman who placed the needs
of her people before her own. In her How
My Mother Died, we are given a unique portrait of
how complicated life was for every black man, woman, and
child in the early and middle decades of the 1900’s. Told from the perspective of an
eight year old, Daisy’s writings soon confronts the
reader with issues of race and murder-subjects one would
think would hardly enter into the mind of one so young
as an eight year old. Yet these subjects are not only
on Daisy’s mind, they forever separate her from her
childhood joy. When she is confronted with her first
incident of racism by a white butcher, Daisy finds
herself “praying that the butcher would die.” And
later, when Daisy finds out that her mother was murdered
at the hands of white men, she gives up “dolls and
games” and vows to find the men who had killed her
mother.
All of this would seem like so much sensationalism if
these issues were not handled so well by Daisy. There is
more sadness than rage in Daisy’s writing. And we
find out early on why Daisy’s response to her
mother’s death and white racism does not set her on a
path of self-destruction or pessimism. The reason for
Daisy’s stability is her father or step-father. It is
this man who established a rock solid relationship with
Daisy and who shepherds her through her early crisis. As
much as the themes of racism and violence, the theme of
love between these two--father and daughter--draws the
reader into Daisy’s complex world. In the end, it is
the love of this wise, understanding man that would
transform Daisy and make her into one of the giants of
the Civil Rights Movement. Source:
Young and Black in America
(1972), edited by Julius
Lester
* * *
* *
Charles Mingus:
Fable of Faubus
"Fables of Faubus"
is a song composed by jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus.
One of Mingus' most explicitly political works, the song was
written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor
Orval E. Faubus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to
prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School by
nine African American teenagers. The song was first recorded
for Mingus' 1959 album,
Mingus Ah Um. Columbia refused to allow the lyrics to the
song to be included, and so the song was recorded as an
instrumental on the album. It was not until October 20, 1960
that the song was recorded with lyrics, for the album
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, which was released
on the more independent
Candid label. Due to contractual issues with Columbia, the
song could not be released as "Fables of Faubus", and so the
Candid version was titled "Original Faubus Fables."
 |
The personnel for the
Candid recording were Charles Mingus (bass, vocals),
Dannie Richmond (drums, vocals),
Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone), and
Ted Curson (trumpet). The vocals featured a
call-and-response between Mingus and Richmond. Critic
Don Heckman commented on the unedited "Original Faubus
Fables" in a 1962 review that it was "a classic Negro
put-down in which satire becomes a deadly rapier-thrust.
Faubus emerges in a glare of ridicule as a mock villain whom
no-one really takes seriously. This kind of commentary,
brimful of feeling, bitingly direct and harshly satiric,
appears far too rarely in jazz." The song, either with or
without lyrics, was one of the compositions which Mingus
returned to most often, both on record and in concert.—Wikipedia
photo left:
As fifteen-year-old
Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter the school,
soldiers of the National Guard, under orders from
Arkansas Governor Faubus, would step in her way to
prevent her from entering. |
* *
* * *
|
Fable of Faubus
By Charles Mingus
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em shoot
us!
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em stab us!
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em tar and feather us!
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!
Name me someone who's
ridiculous, Dannie.
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won't permit integrated schools.
Then he's a fool! Boo! Nazi
Fascist supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that's
ridiculous, Dannie Richmond.
Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate.
H-E-L-L-O, Hello.
Orval E. Faubus was the governor of Arkansas in
1957 and against desegregation. He sent the National
Guard to prevent black children from attending high
school in Little Rock. |
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated 3 October 2007
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