Arkansas State Press (Little Rock, Ark.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
893 issues from 1941 to 1959, published in Little Rock, Arkansas, digitised for Chronicling America.
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…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- 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.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress