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Newspaper Arkansas State Press (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959 State press

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About Arkansas State Press (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959

In the 1950s, Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, became the center of national attention during a desegregation crisis at Central High School. The events were covered extensively by the Arkansas State Press, a local newspaper started in 1941 by a Black civil rights activist couple, Lucius Christopher Bates and Daisy Lee Gatson Bates.

In 1941, the Bateses purchased the newspaper plant from the Twin City Press (193?-1940), a paper in Little Rock that had served the Black community in that city, Pulaski County, and Pine Bluff in Jefferson County. The Bateses renamed the paper the Arkansas State Press. Lucius Bates was the editor and manager, Daisy Bates worked as co-publisher, and Earl Davy served as photographer. The Press was an 8-page paper published every week on Thursday. It circulated in Little Rock and other Arkansas towns with significant Black populations, including Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, Helena, Forrest City, Jonesboro, and Texarkana. It was the largest Black newspaper in Arkansas during its run. The Press was unique, even among Black newspapers, in its strong campaign for civil rights. The paper endorsed political policies and candidates who worked toward equality in Arkansas. It also highlighted the achievements of Black Arkansans, along with social, religious, political, and sports news relevant to the Black community.

One of the major racially motivated events covered by the Press was the murder of a Black soldier by a white soldier in 1942 on the same street as the Press‘s newspaper office. This incident, which was underreported elsewhere, boosted distribution of the Press and earned it a reputation as the source for Black civil rights news and a voice for change. Another major cause during the paper’s run was the desegregation of public schools, and the Press was the only paper in Arkansas to push for integration. For years the Bateses, who served as leaders in the Little Rock branch of the NAACP, pushed for racial integration in public schools despite pushback from white Arkansans and many Black Arkansans. In 1954, the Press celebrated the decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to end segregation in schools. To put the law into action, Daisy mentored the Little Rock Nine, the first Black students to integrate into the formerly white Central High School in 1957.

The backlash from protestors of desegregation ended the Press‘s 8-year run. Though the paper had support from many in the Black community, its progressive views had long upset white advertisers, who stopped running ads in the Press. Although the newspaper reached a subscriber base of 20,000 and received supplemental support from the NAACP, it struggled to remain operational. The intimidation of Black news carriers during the desegregation protests, combined with the advertisers’ boycott, forced the Press to close in 1959.

Daisy Bates revived the Arkansas State Press in 1984—it ran through 1998—and dedicated the paper to the memory of her late husband, Lucius.

Provided By: Arkansas State Archives

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Arkansas State Press (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959

Other Title

  • State press

Dates of Publication

  • 1941-1959

Created / Published

  • Little Rock, Ark. : [L. Christopher Bates]

Headings

  • -  African Americans--Arkansas--Newspapers
  • -  Little Rock (Ark.)--Newspapers
  • -  African Americans
  • -  Arkansas
  • -  Arkansas--Little Rock
  • -  United States--Arkansas--Pulaski--Little Rock

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 10, no. 49 (May 9, 1941)-v. 19, no. 25 (Oct. 30, 1959).
  • -  "Arkansas" appears within masthead ornament, -Oct. 30, 1959.
  • -  This title was later revived as: Arkansas State press (Little Rock, Ark. : 1984), a newspaper dedicated to the memory of L. Christopher Bates.

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AN

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84025840

OCLC Number

  • 10434302

ISSN Number

  • 2994-3809

Preceding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Arkansas State Press Little Rock, Ark. -1959. (Little Rock, AR), Jan. 1 1941. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025840/.

APA citation style:

(1941, January 1) Arkansas State Press Little Rock, Ark. -1959. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025840/.

MLA citation style:

Arkansas State Press Little Rock, Ark. -1959. (Little Rock, AR) 1 Jan. 1941. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn84025840/.