UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS TO HOLD TRIBUTE TO LATE DAISY BATES

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A tribute to the late Daisy Bates will take place at 4 p.m. Monday at Giffels Auditorium in Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus, Fayetteville. The program is open to the public.

In 1957 Mrs. Bates, as Arkansas president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the fight to integrate public schools at Little Rock Central High. The result was a major victory in the civil rights movement after the 1954 U.S. Supreme

Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, declared school segregation unconstitutional.

Mrs. Bates and her husband, L.C., published the Arkansas State Press, a paper they were forced to close in 1959 due to the loss of advertising revenue brought on by the Central High crisis. However, in 1984 she revived the State Press, before selling it in 1988.

Janis Kearney, who in 1988 became publisher of the Arkansas State Press, will present remarks based upon her close association with Mrs. Bates. Ms. Kearney presently works in the White House as presidential diarist/historian. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1977 with a B.A. in journalism.

Also on the program is Arkansas State Rep. Tracy L. Steele, who is executive director of the Arkansas Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission. Mr. Steele also knew Mrs. Bates quite well.

Representatives of the student body and the faculty will share their thoughts on Mrs. Bates, who last visited the campus in February 1996 to help dedicate the university's Multicultural Center. Dr. Eddie W. Jones and the Inspirational Singers will conclude the tribute, followed by a reception.

In conjunction with the tribute, a selection of books, photographs, and letters donated by Mrs. Bates is currently on exhibit in the Helen R. Walton reading room of Mullins Library. The exhibit will run through the end of the semester.

For additional information contact Michael Dabrishus, head of special collections in the UA library, at 575-5577.