Thread by @ron_fournier

Listening to @Morning_Joe ask guests to highlight a #BlackHistoryMonth hero. Mine is Daisy Bates

In the late 1980s/early 1990s, then-Arkansas Governor @BillClinton honored her with a ceremony at the state Capitol. I covered the event. What I saw inspired and angered me. 1/

Daisy Bates (1914-1999) was a civil rights activists, journalist and publisher who organized and guided the Little Rock Nine, the nine Black students who segregated Central High at the point of a gun. womenshistory.org/education-reso… 2/

President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the students after then-Governor Orval Faubus used the Ark National Guard to block their entry in defiance of Brown v Board. He was a bigot hiding behind a Big Lie: He said the troops were needed to protect safety. 3/

4/ The only thing he and other segregationists were protecting was white supremacy. Flash forward a generation and @BillClinton is at the front of the room with Daisy Bates unveiling her portrait. In the back of the room, leaning against the wall, is a frail old man. It’s ...

5/ Orval F***ing Faubus. I walk back with my notepad in my hand and ask why he’s here. “I always liked Daisy,” he said. I told him no he did not — he blocked her and the LR 9 at every turn. Faubus shook his head and said, “I was just trying to protect their safety.”

6/ I said, “That’s not what you were doing, sir.” Then I turned my back on him and walked to the front of the room with Daisy Bates and @BillClinton. In time, I also met most of the surviving Little Rock Nine. One of my life’s great honors. Looking back ...

With racism creeping out from the dark corners of America’s soul in the first decades of a new century, I look back on that assignment and smile. While the great Daisy Bates will forever belong to history, Faubus is little remembered, known only for his bigotry and Big Lie. -30-

Almost 7 years ago, I returned to Little Rock for @nationaljournal/@TheAtlantic and reflected on the odd and ugly shared ethos of racists and homophobes

google.com/amp/s/amp.thea…

cc @YAppelbaum