Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: April 27, 2000

Contact: John Wright: 202/208-6416

Babbitt Praises President Clinton's Support of Daisy Bates
House in Little Rock as a National Historic Landmark

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today praised President Clinton's interest and support in having the Daisy Bates House in Little Rock, AR designated as a National Historic Landmark. The Bates House served as a site of many strategy-setting meetings on the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.

"Preserving this site and the historical significance of the unique role it played in the Civil Rights movement provides a teaching tool for future generations," said Babbitt. "The Daisy Bates House enables us to examine an unflattering period in our nation's history."

The home owned by Ms. Daisy Bates and her husband L.C. Bates is located at 1207 West 28^th Street in Little Rock. Ms. Bates was president of the Arkansas Chapter of the NAACP, and is best known as the coordinator of the plan to enroll nine black students at Central High School. She was very active in the civil rights struggle long before the integration of Central High School. Throughout her life Ms. Bates was motivated by the unwavering conviction in the "rightness" of equality.

During the crisis at Central High, most notably at the beginning of the school year, the nine students who were to integrate the high school met at the home of L.C. and Daisy Bates before and after the school day. On Monday, September 23, 1957, the nine students met at the Bates' home, escorted to the school by the Little Rock Police and finally entered Central High School. A few hours later, police escorted the students away from the school as the protesting mob broke through barricades. At the direction of President Eisenhower, the 101^st Airborne was sent to Little Rock the next day to escort the nine black students to the all white Central High School. From September 24, until the airborne unit left Little Rock, the students would gather daily at and return to the Bates House. On November 18, the students continued to meet regularly at the Bates home for escorts to school, press conferences, and for strategy sessions.

The nomination for designation as a National Historic Landmark is being prepared by and coordinated by Dr. Johanna Miller-Lewis, a professor of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The nomination will be reviewed by Cathryn Slater, Arkansas State Historic Preservation officer, and by the National Park Service before being formally considered by the National Park Service Advisory Board in the spring of 2001.

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