Civil rights leader Daisy Bates to be honored with statue at US Capitol

The late U.S. civil rights leader and journalist Daisy Bates, who was instrumental in desegregating Arkansas public schools in the 1950s, will be honored on Wednesday when a statue of her is unveiled at the U.S. Capitol.
The bronze statue depicts Bates, who died in 1999 at the age of 84, with a newspaper in one hand and a notebook and pen in the other. It will be joined later this year by another Arkansas entry, honoring the late singer Johnny Cash, according to the office of House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
Bates and her husband together published an Arkansas newspaper dedicated to the civil rights cause. She also served as the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP.
The U.S. Capitol allows each of the 50 states to choose two statues for the National Statuary Hall and surrounding prominent hallways. Arkansas’ state legislature in 2019 decided to replace both of its entries.