Orval Faubus

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.

Early life

Orval 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."

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.

Little Rock integration crisis

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

The stand was ironic, considering that in 1954, Faubus had run for governor as a 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 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 barracks 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 Schools for the next two years.

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).

While he carried black precincts in Crittenden and other East Arkansas machine counties (where wealthy planters paid up their workers' poll taxes en masse and hauled them to the polls on election day, carefully recording how each voted) by better than 9 to one margins, he also carried substantial majorities in black urban precincts dominated by African American clergymen, to whom Faubus operatives paid thousands of dollars in "expense money."

However, after the abolition of the poll tax by the 24th Amendment in 1964 and the adoption of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African American voters became more independent, although still largely influenced by their church leaders. This was a substantial shift in political power in Arkansas, although it has been argued that an electorate manipulated by preachers is no more democratic than one manipulated by plantation owners.

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.

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, a rambling modern ranch "mansion" built on Governor's Hill overlooking Huntsville which 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 retained a grudging admiration among many, particularly older, Arkansans for his defiance of President Eisenhower and the national press. This, notwithstanding his demagoguery of the race issue and the virtual re-segregation of Little Rock's public schools, which in 2004 are 70 to 90 percent black in spite of 50 years of litigation and massive busing costing hundreds of millions of dollars. This has led many to question the efficacy of the Brown decision. For example, Central High School, while formally integrated with some 30% white enrollment, operates a 2-tier curriculum, with 95% of the white students in advanced math, English, science and language classes which in some cases are all white.

Critics point out that Little Rock housing, like that in many U.S. cities, remains largely divided along racial lines. However, others argue that the present situation is due to economics and personal choice, not to legal barriers, which Brown struck down, and to that extent Brown has been successful. No elected official, they say, would today dare imitate Faubus by using the police power of a state to deny public services to members of any minority.

Notes

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."