After mob violence forces withdrawal of the Little Rock Nine, Bates's advocacy contributes to Eisenhower deploying the 101st Airborne Division.
On September 23, 1957, following weeks of escalating tension, a violent mob gathered outside Little Rock Central High School, forcing local officials to withdraw the Little Rock Nine from the building for their safety after they had briefly gained entry through a side door.
Daisy Bates had been in constant communication with federal officials, the NAACP national office, and the press throughout the crisis, documenting the failure of local and state authorities to protect the students and pressing the case for federal intervention. Her advocacy, along with the national media coverage of the mob violence, helped convince President Dwight D. Eisenhower that federal action was necessary.
In response to the chaos, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and, two days later, deployed the elite 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock — the first time federal troops had been sent to the South to enforce desegregation since Reconstruction. This was an extraordinary assertion of federal authority over a defiant state government led by Governor Orval Faubus.
Bates's role as a trusted, credible voice for the students and the local Black community was instrumental in shaping the narrative that reached Washington, D.C., and her continued coordination with federal officials in the following days ensured the safe escort of the students once troops arrived.