Tainted Love: The Marriage of Daisy and L.C. Bates, and the Personal Price of Political Activism

Typical narratives about Arkansas civil rights activists, Daisy and L.C. Bates, tend to

focus on Daisy’s leadership during the 1957 national crisis to desegregate Little

Rock’s prestigious Central High School. While the story about the events and

circumstances that led to Daisy’s ascent as a rare female spokesperson in the 1950s

Civil Rights Movement is worthy of serious historical inquiry, a study of her

personal life, particularly her marriage with L.C., is especially illuminating.

Chronicling the couples life together from 1930, when Daisy was 15, to L.C.’s death,

this paper argues that the victories the Bateses won for the Movement came at an

immense personal price: their marriage.  Before “Little Rock” Daisy and L.C. enjoyed

a balanced partnership where both prospered.  Their personalities and brands of

activism complimented each other. L.C. used his newspaper, The Arkansas State

Press, to promote Daisy’s activities as President of the NAACP’s Arkansas State

Conference. In return, Daisy used her increasingly high profile activism to promote

her husband’s paper as the official organ for her political work. As the couple

reached the apex of their political activism (1955-1960) the personal relationship

suffered greatly, culminating in their January 1963 divorce. The stress of leading a

national crisis damaged their partnership. The newspaper, which had been the

foundation for their activism and livelihood, had been destroyed. Daisy was no

longer President of the state NAACP, and jobs and money were hard to come by. In

the end, the couple remarried and endured until L.C.’s death. However, their story is

an important example of how activist couples navigated and maintained their

marriages during and after their work in the Civil Rights Movement.