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Classroom · Grades 6–12

Daisy Bates

Desegregation at Little Rock depended not only on nine students and federal troops but on local organizers like Bates, who supported the students and bore the costs of standing with them.

Lesson at a Glance

Grades
Grades 6–12
Time
One class period (20–40 minutes)
Standards
NCSS Themes 5 (Individuals, Groups, and Institutions), 6 (Power, Authority, and Governance), and 10 (Civic Ideals and Practices); C3 D2.His.4, D2.His.14, D2.Civ.10
Reading
Daisy Bates (profile)

Big Idea

Desegregation at Little Rock depended not only on nine students and federal troops but on local organizers like Bates, who supported the students and bore the costs of standing with them.

Before Class

Students read the profile of Daisy Bates, including the Key Dates and Sources.

Discussion Questions

  1. What roles did Bates play for the Little Rock Nine, and why might students facing daily harassment have needed an adult advocate outside the school?
  2. Bates and her husband lost their newspaper to an advertiser boycott. What does that reveal about the economic pressure used against civil rights activists?
  3. Why did it take federal troops for nine students to attend Central High School? What does the crisis show about the relationship between federal and state power?
  4. Bates titled her memoir The Long Shadow of Little Rock. What long shadow do you think she meant?

Activity

Groups examine documents from the Eisenhower Presidential Library’s collection on the Little Rock school integration crisis alongside Executive Order 10730 from the National Archives. Each group identifies who wrote its document, to whom, and what action it urged. Using the profile, students then write a short journal entry in Bates’s voice reacting to the federal response in September 1957. Share the entries and discuss how the view from Washington differed from the view in Little Rock.

Primary Sources

Cite this page
MLA
“Classroom lesson: Daisy Bates.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/classroom/daisy-bates/.
APA
Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). Classroom lesson: Daisy Bates. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/classroom/daisy-bates/
Chicago
Black-History.com Editors. “Classroom lesson: Daisy Bates.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/classroom/daisy-bates/.
Editorial Note

By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.

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