L. C. Bates

Lucius Christopher Bates (April 27, 1904 – August 22, 1980) was an African-American civil rights activist and the husband of Daisy Bates. He founded the Arkansas State Press newspaper with his wife in 1941. He was an active member of the NAACP and was one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case Cooper v. Aaron, which was filed by the NAACP so the decision made by the court in the Brown v. Board of Education case would be properly enforced. Early life Lucious Christopher Bates was born April 27, 1904, in Liberty, Mississippi, to Laura and Morris Bates, the latter of whom was a farmer, carpenter, and minister. The Bates family were some of the few blacks in the area. Due to the position Rev. Morris Bates held in the community and the respect the residents had for him, Bates was allowed to attend but not enroll into the local white school. The family would later move to Indianola, Mississippi where Bates was enrolled into a black public school. Bates would finish high school at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, which was not uncommon at that time. After high school, Bates would study journalism at Alcorn A&M College in Mississippi and Wilberforce University in Ohio for a year before dropping out.