The Mentor, Patricia A. Montgomery

This coat portrays Daisy Bates as The Mentor. Bates coached the Little Rock Nine—a group of African American students who integrated the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas—on nonviolent responses to physical and verbal abuse.
Bates’s home was a haven for these students, who met there every morning and were transported to Central High School under the protection of the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division. For this work, Bates was awarded the NAACP 1958 Spingarn Medal, which honors outstanding achievement by an African American. She is often called the First Lady of Little Rock.