Orval Faubus

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Orval Eugene Faubus (7 January 1910–14 December 1994) was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas, infamous for his 1957 stand against integration of Little Rock, Arkansas, schools in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

1 Early life
2 Early political career
3 Little Rock integration crisis
4 End of political career
5 Final chapter
6 Bibliography
7 Music

[edit] Early life

Orville Faubus was born near Combs in Madison County, Arkansas. Weighing just four pounds following a premature birth, Faubus stood out among others according to his father. "Little Orval was different to most boys" said J. Sam Faubus. "Kids like to get into mischief, but all he ever did was read books. He never done anything if he couldn't do it perfectly. You'd never find a weed in his row of corn."

Sam Faubus provided him with an early political education that would serve him for decades to come. During the early part of the century socialist causes were popular in the rural mountains of Arkansas, and as a poor hill farmer, "Uncle Sam" Faubus became active locally in a number of movements. These areas included supporting socialist causes by forming a Socialist Party of America local amongst his neighbors and writing lengthy essays in favor of it for the local Madison County newspaper. Sam Faubus also publicly advocated women's suffrage and the abolition of the poll tax.

Sam Faubus was considered a leader of the movement in Madison County but the U.S. entry into World War I brought suspicion down on opposition political sentiments. Sam Faubus and a friend were arrested in 1918 for "distributing seditious material" and "uttering numerous disloyal remarks."

[edit] Early political career

Despite managing just an eighth-grade education, Faubus passed a teaching exam in 1928 to instruct students in nearby Pinnacle, Arkansas. He eventually earned his high school diploma, but spent his summers during this era riding trains to pick fruit all across the country.

Faubus's first political run was in 1936 when he ran for a seat in the Arkansas General Assembly. Faubus came in second in that contest. He was urged to challenge the result but declined, which earned him the gratitude of the Democratic Party. As a result, he served two terms as circuit clerk and recorder.

When the United States entered World War II Faubus joined the United States Army and served as an intelligence officer with George S. Patton's Third Army. Rising to the rank of Major, Faubus would be involved in combat several times.

When Faubus returned from the war he cultivated ties with leaders of Arkansas' Democratic Party, particularly with progressive reform Governor Sid McMath, leader of the post-war "GI Revolt" against corruption, whom he served as director of the state's highway commission. When Francis Cherry, who had defeated McMath in 1952 in the latter's third term re-election bid, became widely unpopular, Faubus challenged him in the 1954 primary.

The 1954 election cycle was a bitter one and Faubus was forced to defend his attendance at a defunct northwest Arkansas school known as Commonwealth College, Arkansas, as well as his early political upbringing. Commonwealth College had been formed as a left-leaning college by academic and social activists, some of whom later were revealed to have had close ties with the American Communist Party. Most of those who attended and taught there, however, were simply idealistic young people seeking an education or, in the case of the faculty, a job which came with full room and board.

During the run-off, Cherry and his surrogates accused Faubus of attending a "communist" school and implied that his sympathies remained leftist. Faubus at first denied attending, then admitted enrolling "for only a few weeks." Later, however, it was disclosed that he had remained at the school for more than a year, during which he was elected president of the student body. Faubus actually led a group of students who testified on behalf of the college's accredidation before the state legislature. Nevertheless, efforts to paint the candidate as a communist sympathizer backfired in a climate of growing resentment against such allegations and Faubus defeated Cherry to win his first term as Governor.

The political attacks of the 1954 election, though unsuccessful, seem to have made Faubus very sensitive to attacks from the right. It has been suggested that this sensitivity contributed to his later stance against integration when attacked by segregationist elements of his party.

[edit] Little Rock integration crisis

Faubus speaking to a crowd protesting the integration of Little Rock schools

Faubus' name became internationally known during the Little Rock Crisis of 1957, when he used the National Guard to stop African Americans from attending Little Rock Central High School as part of federally ordered racial desegregation.

The stand may seem surprising considering Faubus' 1954 run for governor as a high-spending liberal promising to increase spending on schools and roads. In the first few months of his administration, Faubus desegregated state buses and public transportation and began to investigate the possibility of introducing multi-racial schools.

However, by the start of 1957, Faubus had passed a controversial tax in order to increase teacher salaries, and also faced an election challenge from Jim Johnson, leader of the right-wing of the Democratic Party in Arkansas and supporter of segregation.

Critics have long charged that Faubus' fight in Little Rock against the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court which stated that separate schools were unequal, was politically motivated. The ensuing battle helped shield him from the fallout of the tax increase, as well as diminish the appeal of Johnson.

Faubus's decision led to a showdown with President Dwight Eisenhower and former governor Sid McMath. In October 1957 Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered them to return to their armories which effectively removed them from Faubus's control. Eisenhower then sent elements of the 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to protect the black students and enforce the Federal court order. In retaliation, Faubus shut down Little Rock high schools for the 1958-1959 school year. This is often referred to as "The Lost Year" in Little Rock.

Most histories of the crisis conclude that Faubus, facing pressure from a segregationist opponent as he campaigned for a third term, cynically decided to appease racist elements in the state by calling out the National Guard to prevent the black students from entering Central High. But Jacoway (2007) gives the governor less control over events; she casts Faubus as a weak leader trapped under the weight of well-organized resistance to school integration from the White Citizens' Council and other groups determined not to have Arkansas become the first Southern state to comply with the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Jacoway's version of events is a counter to the way the story was told by Arkansas's top journalist of the time, Harry Ashmore. She dismisses Ashmore -- the editor of the Arkansas Gazette who won a 1958 Pulitzer Prize for his editorials on the crisis -- as an indifferent journalist who became a darling of Northern parlors for bashing white Southerners as "rednecks." Jacoway blames Ashmore for portraying the fight over Central High as a crisis manufactured by Faubus; in her telling, Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to keep black children out of Central High School because he was frustrated by the success his political opponents were having in using segregationist rhetoric to stir white voters.

[edit] End of political career

Faubus was elected governor six times and served for 12 years, maintaining his defiant, populist image while at the same time shifting toward a less confrontational stance with the federal government, particularly during the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, with each of whom he remained cordial.

In 1962, Faubus broke with the White Citizens Councils and other far right groups, who endorsed Congressman Dale Alford in that year's gubernatorial election. Faubus cast himself as a moderate, barely winning a majority in the Democratic primary over Alford, McMath and 3 other candidates. While outcast by black leaders, Faubus nevertheless won large percentages of the black vote (81% overall in 1964).

Faubus chose not to run for re-election to a 7th term in 1966. Jim Johnson, by then an elected state supreme court justice, narrowly won the Democratic nomination, but he was defeated in the general election by Republican reformer Winthrop Rockefeller, who became the state's first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

In 1968, Faubus was among five people considered for the vice presidential slot of third-party presidential candidate George Wallace. However, due to the public perception of both as segregationists, Wallace ended up selecting retired General Curtis LeMay.

During the 1969 season, Faubus was hired by new owner Jess Odom to be general manager of his Li'l Abner themepark in the Ozarks, Dogpatch USA. According to newspaper articles of the time, Faubus is said to have commented that managing the park was very similar to running the state and some of the same tricks applied to both.

Faubus lost considerable public support that year when he divorced his wife Alta after 38 years of marriage to marry 30-year old Elizabeth Westmoreland on March 21, 1969. Faubus' first wife had been a gracious and dignified first lady and won her own loyal following over the couple's many years in public life.

He sought the governorship again in 1970, 1974, and 1986 but was defeated in those years' Democratic primaries by Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton, respectively, each of whom went on to win in November.

Faubus' decline was due to the Democratic party's reformation of its own policies in response to public acceptance of the progressive polices followed by Rockefeller. Thus, a new generation of appealing Democratic candidates easily contrasted themselves favorably in voters' minds with Faubus' old-style politics.

[edit] Final chapter

In the aftermath of his divorce, Faubus's financial position had deteriorated to the point where he was forced to accept a position as a bank teller at a local Huntsville, Arkansas, bank and sell his home. The residence, a rambling modern ranch "mansion" built on Governor's Hill overlooking Huntsville, had been built with "contributions" from state employees, contractors doing business with the state and Hot Springs gambling interests.

He also suffered a number of personal tragedies over the next decade. His only child, son Farrell, was found dead of a drug overdose in Seattle, WA in June of 1976. Seven years later, his estranged wife, Elizabeth, was found strangled in the bathtub of the couple's home on March 3, 1983. The couple had separated in June of 1982, with Elizabeth filing for divorce four months later. Seven months after her death, David Helmond was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

His death from prostate cancer on December 14, 1994 came with third wife Jan at his side. Since his death, Faubus has been a figure of ridicule nationally, but retains a grudging admiration among many, particularly older Arkansans for his defiance of President Eisenhower and the liberal press.

[edit] Bibliography

Branton, Wiley A. "Little Rock Revisited: Desegregation to Resegregation." Journal of Negro Education 1983 52(3): 250-269. Issn: 0022-2984 Fulltext: in Jstor
Faubus, Orval Eugene. Down from the Hills. Little Rock: Democrat Printing & Lithographing, 1980. 510 pp.
Elizabeth Jacoway. Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation (2007)
Roy Reed. Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal (1997).
Reed, Roy. "Orval E. Faubus: out of Socialism into Realism." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1995 54(1): 13-29. Issn: 0004-1823

[edit] Music

Charles Mingus composed "Fables of Faubus" with the Governor's stand against desegregation in mind. The official Mingus website supplies lyrics which Mingus was prohibited (by Columbia Records) to include on the final cut of his album Mingus Ah Um, but which were included on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, under the title "Original Faubus Fables."