YOUNGSTOWN Officials to honor black leader

The woman who guided the 'Little Rock Nine' also published the only black-owned newspaper in Arkansas.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Escorted by a platoon of soldiers, they dodged racial slurs, flying bottles and spit to get into their new school.
Before that historic walk through the crowd of angry whites, though, the black kids who would become known as the "Little Rock Nine" were prepared for what was to come by a group of people behind the scenes.
One of those people was Daisy Bates, who will be honored by Youngstown officials at 6 p.m. Thursday in Tabernacle Baptist Church on Arlington Avenue for her achievements during the tumultuous civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s.
J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio secretary of state, will be the keynote speaker.
"We felt it quite fitting that this remarkable individual be honored and her descendants be recognized," said Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th.
Bates, who died in 1999, has relatives in Youngstown.
Her background: A slender, soft-spoken woman, Bates was president of the Arkansas NAACP during the 1957 school confrontation and, according to her granddaughter, Nadine Jackson, it was that work that made her notice the need for better education of black students.
When it came time to end school segregation in Arkansas, Bates gathered the youngsters at her house for the short walk to Little Rock Central High School.
Jackson said her grandmother organized and inspired the students for that first day of school.
Bates' accomplishments did not stop there.
She and her husband, L.C., published what is still the only black-owned newspaper in Little Rock -- The Arkansas State Press.
Daisy Bates Day: The third Monday in February has been designated Daisy Bates Day in Arkansas. The street that runs by Little Rock Central High has been named for her and her home has been designated a national historical landmark.
But, said Jackson, her grandmother's work was not always appreciated in the deep South.
The family home was bombed and shot at and Bates' life was threatened several times.
The family put one-way glass in the house so they could see out but nobody could see in.
That's when Jackson's mother brought her children to Youngstown, out of harm's way.
"My mother never said too much to us about why we moved," Jackson reflected. "She wanted to be low key."