Official Kids Mag

By Karen Rice Official Kids Mag March is Women's History Month, a great time to learn about women throughout history who have made our world a better place. We all know some amazing women…starting with our moms, grandmas, aunts and sisters! Here are five women from Arkansas you should know about, who overcame obstacles to achieve great things! Five Arkansan women you should know (1914-1999) was an African- American woman from Huttig, Arkansas, who dedicated her life to fighting for racial justice. When she was just a girl, her mother was killed by three white men and she grew up in foster care. After she got married, Daisy and her husband started a newspaper called The Arkansas Weekly, which was dedicated to civil rights issues. When the Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that all schools must allow black students to attend, some schools in Arkansas and other places in the country did not want to obey. Daisy supported a group of students called the Little Rock Nine, who wanted to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She drove the students to school, encouraged them, worked to protect them from violence and made their story known. Because of her work, the students succeeded, winning one of the biggest battles for school integration in our country. Daisy continued to work throughout her life to end racism, received many awards, and after her death in 1999 was awarded the Medal of Freedom. (1905-1979) was a female aviator (an aviatrix) who grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas. Her dad taught Louise to hunt, fish, and fix a car. Like her more-famous friend Amelia Earhart, her interest in flying began early and she earned her pilot's license when she was just 23 years old, something very few women did. She and Amelia created the Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots (there were 99 of them to start with.) Louise set many aviation records, including the women's altitude record, solo endurance record and speed record. In 1936 she won the Bendix Trophy Race, with her co-pilot Blanche Noyes, in the first year women were allowed to compete against men. She set a new world record of 14 hours, 55 minutes from New York City to Los Angeles, California. Louise won the Harmon Trophy, the highest honor given to women in aviation, for her achievements. Thaden Field, the municipal airport in Bentonville, is named after her. (1878-1950) was the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate in 1932. Hattie made history with other "firsts" as well. She was the first woman to preside over the Senate, first to chair a Senate committee and first to run a Senate hearing. Although Hattie was born in Tennessee, she and her husband Thaddeus settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Thaddeus was a U.S. Senator, and when he died in office in 1931, Hattie was appointed by the governor of Arkansas to temporarily take her husband's place. But when the election came around in 1932, she surprised everyone by deciding to run for a full term. No one thought she would win, but she did, and then was re-elected in 1938. Hattie won the respect of male senators, who gave her a standing ovation on her last day in the Senate. She helped pave the way for other women to be taken seriously in politics. Louise thaden Hattie caraway daisy Bates 28 • MaRcH 2022 • www.OfficialKidsMag.com

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