Overview

Orval Eugene Faubus was an American teacher, newspaper editor, Army intelligence officer, county official, highway commissioner, Democratic politician, and six-term governor of Arkansas whose career became permanently associated with the 1957 Little Rock school-integration crisis.

Faubus was born on January 7, 1910, in a rented log cabin on Greasy Creek in Madison County in the Ozark Mountains. His father, John Samuel Faubus, was a self-educated farmer and socialist who named Orval's middle name for Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs.

The young Faubus briefly attended Commonwealth College, a left-wing self-help institution, taught in rural schools, worked seasonal jobs, and entered Democratic politics during the New Deal era.

He won election as circuit clerk and recorder of Madison County in 1938 and served until entering the United States Army during World War II.

Faubus served as an Army intelligence officer in five major European campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge, and attained the rank of major. His wartime service became an important credential in his postwar political rise.

After the war he returned to Huntsville, Arkansas, served as postmaster, and with his wife Alta purchased the weekly Madison County Record. His editorials promoted better education, healthcare, highways, and public services.

Faubus became an ally of Governor Sidney McMath, another World War II veteran associated with Arkansas's postwar reform movement. McMath appointed him to the Arkansas State Highway Commission and later brought him into the governor's office.

In 1954 Faubus mounted what initially appeared to be an unlikely challenge to incumbent governor Francis Cherry. His campaign mixed economic populism, attacks on utilities and elite interests, support for welfare recipients, and a disciplined rural campaign organization.

Cherry's attempt to portray Faubus as a communist because of his youthful connection to Commonwealth College backfired. Faubus defeated Cherry in the Democratic runoff and then won the general election by a landslide.

Faubus entered the governor's office in January 1955 with a reputation closer to New Deal populism and racial moderation than to the hard-line massive-resistance politics associated with governors such as Ross Barnett or George Wallace.

His administration increased teacher pay, expanded highways and state parks, improved state mental-health institutions, created the Arkansas Children's Colony, supported industrial development, and later helped preserve the Buffalo River from a proposed dam.

His administration also hired some Black employees, supported funding for historically Black institutions, and later joined efforts to replace Arkansas's discriminatory poll-tax registration system with a modern voter-registration process.

These facts are historically important because Faubus's later obstruction of school integration was not simply the predictable continuation of an unchanging extremist ideology.

The political environment changed rapidly after Brown v. Board of Education. Arkansas had initially experienced relatively peaceful school desegregation in places such as Charleston and Fayetteville, and state officials had generally avoided the most defiant Deep South response.

Hard-line segregationists, however, organized around figures such as James D. 'Justice Jim' Johnson. Johnson attacked Faubus from the right in the 1956 governor's race and helped make opposition to integration a major statewide electoral issue.

Faubus defeated Johnson by promising to protect segregated institutions without embracing all of Johnson's disorderly extremism. The competition nevertheless pushed the governor toward increasingly explicit resistance to federal desegregation.

Arkansas voters adopted Amendment 44 in 1956, an interposition measure declaring state opposition to the Supreme Court's school-desegregation rulings.

In 1957 Faubus signed legislation creating the Arkansas State Sovereignty Commission and related mechanisms intended to monitor or resist organizations associated with school integration.

The defining crisis began when the Little Rock School District prepared to implement a gradual desegregation plan at Central High School in September 1957.

The plan was limited and cautious. It would admit a small number of carefully selected Black students to one formerly all-white high school while broader integration was postponed.

Segregationist organizations, including the Capital Citizens' Council and Mothers' League of Central High, mobilized to stop the plan and predicted violence.

Faubus publicly claimed that he had to preserve order. On September 2, 1957, he placed the Arkansas National Guard around Central High School and directed the Guard to prevent Black students from entering.

On September 4, nine Black students attempted to attend Central High. National Guardsmen acting under Faubus's authority turned them away.

Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford arrived separately and was surrounded by a white mob that screamed insults and threats while soldiers denied her entrance. Photographs of her ordeal circulated around the world.

The nine students—Melba Pattillo, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls, and Thelma Mothershed—became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Faubus insisted that the Guard had been deployed to prevent violence rather than to defy integration. The actual orders and effect of the deployment, however, prevented the Black students from attending a school they were legally entitled to enter under federal court orders.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Faubus that the federal Constitution would be upheld. Congressman Brooks Hays arranged a face-to-face meeting between the governor and president at Newport, Rhode Island, on September 14.

After the meeting, Eisenhower believed Faubus had agreed to respect federal court decisions and allow the Guard to preserve order rather than obstruct integration. Faubus's later conduct did not produce the cooperation Eisenhower expected.

On September 20, federal judge Ronald Davies issued an injunction barring Faubus and Guard commanders from using troops to interfere with the students' attendance.

Faubus withdrew the National Guard. He did not, however, create an adequate alternative security arrangement to protect the students from the white segregationist crowd gathering around the school.

On September 23 the students entered Central High, but an angry crowd outside attacked Black journalists and threatened to overwhelm local police. Authorities removed the students for their safety.

Little Rock mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann appealed to Eisenhower for federal assistance.

On September 23 Eisenhower issued a presidential proclamation ordering people obstructing federal court orders to disperse.

On September 24 Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730, federalized the Arkansas National Guard, and sent soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock.

On September 25, under federal military escort, the Little Rock Nine entered Central High for their first full day of classes.

The crisis represented the most serious direct confrontation between state resistance and federal civil-rights enforcement since Reconstruction.

Faubus lost the immediate constitutional contest. Federal authority prevailed, the students entered the school, and the Supreme Court's desegregation rulings remained binding.

Politically, however, the confrontation transformed Faubus into an enormously popular figure among many white Arkansas voters who admired his resistance to Washington.

The Little Rock Nine endured harassment throughout the school year. Minnijean Brown was eventually expelled after retaliating against white students who had repeatedly tormented her.

Ernest Green became the first Black graduate of Central High School in May 1958.

Faubus and his allies responded to the defeat at Central High by developing new legal and administrative strategies designed to delay or evade desegregation.

In 1958 the Arkansas legislature passed Act 4, which allowed public schools facing integration to be closed, and Act 5, which attempted to redirect public funds toward alternative schools.

When the Supreme Court ordered Little Rock to continue desegregation in September 1958, Faubus signed the resistance legislation and closed all four public high schools in Little Rock.

The resulting 1958–59 academic year became known as the Lost Year.

Nearly four thousand students were displaced. White families had substantially greater access to private and alternative education, while approximately half of displaced Black students received no schooling at all.

Public high-school teachers continued reporting to empty buildings, while high-school football continued by order of the governor.

The school-closing episode demonstrates that Faubus's resistance went beyond one dramatic National Guard confrontation. He used state law and executive power to deny public education rather than accept even limited integration.

Other anti-integration measures targeted the NAACP and state employees. Act 10 required public employees to disclose organizational affiliations, while Act 115 barred NAACP members from state employment.

Faubus also signed a 1959 law requiring donated blood to be labeled by race.

The segregationist program damaged Little Rock's national reputation, frightened some prospective employers, divided the white business community, and created increasing opposition among white moderates as well as Black citizens.

The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools organized to defend public education, and a later recall election removed segregationist school-board members who had fired forty-four teachers and administrators.

Federal courts struck down the school-closing framework, and Little Rock's high schools reopened in August 1959 with token integration.

Faubus nevertheless remained electorally dominant. He won reelection four more times after the 1957 crisis and served six consecutive two-year terms from 1955 through 1967, longer than any other Arkansas governor.

His success depended on more than segregation. Faubus combined racial resistance with public spending, road building, education improvements, mental-health reform, industrial recruitment, rural patronage, and a highly effective statewide political organization.

He regularly presented himself as the defender of ordinary Arkansans against federal judges, outside elites, utility interests, newspaper critics, and political reformers.

The Arkansas Gazette became one of his most persistent institutional critics and won Pulitzer recognition for its coverage and editorial position during the Little Rock crisis.

Faubus also faced criticism over corruption, patronage, highway politics, and financial scandals such as Arkansas Loan and Thrift.

One of the darkest episodes of his governorship outside Central High was the March 1959 fire at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School near Wrightsville.

Twenty-one Black boys died in a dormitory whose doors had been locked from the outside. The disaster exposed extreme inequality between segregated state institutions and conditions that reformers had documented years before the fire.

The fire was not an act personally ordered by Faubus, but it occurred under a state administration responsible for an institution whose conditions had long been known to be dangerously inferior.

By the 1960s Faubus continued anti-integration rhetoric while generally avoiding another direct military confrontation with the federal government.

His formula combined appeals to white backlash with modernization of Arkansas government.

He also opposed a proposed dam on the Buffalo River, helping preserve a natural resource that later became the Buffalo National River.

Faubus did not seek a seventh consecutive term in 1966 and left office undefeated in January 1967.

His political machine did not transfer smoothly to a successor. Republican Winthrop Rockefeller won the 1966 governorship, becoming Arkansas's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

Faubus attempted political comebacks in 1970, 1974, and 1986 but failed each time.

After leaving office his finances and political influence declined. He briefly served as general manager of Dogpatch USA, a theme park in northern Arkansas.

His first marriage to Alta Haskins ended in divorce in 1969. Their only child, Farrell, died by suicide in 1976.

Faubus later married Elizabeth Westmoreland. She was murdered in Houston in 1983 while the marriage was breaking down. Faubus was not accused of involvement in the killing.

In 1986 he married teacher Jan Hines Wittenberg.

In his later years Faubus wrote memoirs and essays, commented on politics, moved increasingly toward conservative positions, and received his final public appointment as Arkansas director of veterans' affairs from Republican governor Frank White.

Faubus died in Conway, Arkansas, on December 14, 1994, from complications associated with prostate cancer.

He was buried in Combs Cemetery in Madison County above the Ozark landscape where his life had begun.

His legacy remains unusually paradoxical. His administration improved schools, roads, hospitals, parks, and public services, yet his defining use of state power was to obstruct Black students exercising constitutional rights.

Faubus did not need to possess the most extreme private racial beliefs in Arkansas to become a major segregationist antagonist. Political calculation, institutional power, and willingness to exploit racial fear were sufficient to produce serious constitutional harm.

For MGU's antagonist series, Faubus is therefore especially important as an example of how a politician with a reform background and comparatively moderate prior racial reputation can adopt segregationist resistance when electoral incentives reward it—and then convert that calculation into state policy.

Quick Facts

Full Name
Orval Eugene Faubus
Born
January 7, 1910, Madison County, Arkansas, United States
Died
December 14, 1994, Conway, Arkansas, United States
Age at Death
84
Parents
John Samuel Faubus and Addie Joslin Faubus
Political Party
Democratic Party
Governor of Arkansas
1955-1967, six consecutive terms
Military Service
United States Army, World War II; intelligence officer; major
Major Civil-Rights Episode
1957 Little Rock Crisis and obstruction of the Little Rock Nine at Central High School
Major School-Closing Episode
1958-1959 Lost Year in Little Rock
Spouses
Alta Haskins Faubus; Elizabeth Westmoreland Faubus; Jan Hines Wittenberg Faubus
Child
Farrell Faubus
Burial Place
Combs Cemetery, Madison County, Arkansas

Birth on Greasy Creek

Faubus was born in a rented log cabin on Greasy Creek in the Ozark Mountains of Madison County, Arkansas.

Ozark Poverty

His childhood unfolded in a poor rural region where subsistence farming, seasonal work, and limited public services shaped family life.

John Samuel Faubus

Faubus's father was a self-educated farmer with strong socialist convictions and deep hostility toward concentrated economic power.

Eugene V. Debs Namesake

John Faubus named Orval's middle name Eugene for American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs.

Addie Joslin Faubus

Faubus's mother, Addie Joslin Faubus, helped maintain the family through the hardships of Ozark rural life.

Socialist Family Environment

The Faubus household exposed Orval to anti-capitalist politics long before he became a Democratic officeholder.

Commonwealth College

At his father's urging, Faubus spent several months at Commonwealth College near Mena, Arkansas, a left-wing labor-oriented educational institution.

The Communist-Smear Problem

Faubus's brief Commonwealth College attendance later became political ammunition, although attending the school did not establish Communist Party membership.

Country School Teaching

Faubus taught in rural schools, one of the few professional occupations available to an ambitious young man with limited resources.

Seasonal Labor

During summers he performed seasonal labor, including fruit picking, reinforcing his familiarity with rural poverty.

Marriage to Alta Haskins

Faubus married Alta Haskins in 1931. She became a teacher, newspaper editor, and important partner in his early political life.

Farrell Faubus

Orval and Alta had one son, Farrell.

Entry into Local Politics

Faubus concluded that electoral office offered a more stable path than alternating between low-paid teaching and seasonal labor.

Circuit Clerk and Recorder

In 1938 he won election as circuit clerk and recorder of Madison County.

County Political Networks

The office gave Faubus practical experience with local government, records, voters, courthouse relationships, and patronage.

New Deal Democrat

Although raised in a socialist household, Faubus moved into the Democratic Party during the political dominance of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

World War II Service

Faubus entered the United States Army during World War II and served in Europe.

Army Intelligence Officer

He worked as an intelligence officer, a role requiring collection, interpretation, and communication of military information.

Five European Campaigns

Arkansas historical sources credit Faubus with service in five major European campaigns.

Battle of the Bulge

His service included the Battle of the Bulge, one of the largest and most dangerous American campaigns in Europe.

Rank of Major

Faubus attained the rank of major before leaving military service.

War Hero Political Capital

Like many members of Arkansas's postwar GI generation, Faubus converted respected military service into political legitimacy.

Return to Huntsville

After the war Faubus returned to Huntsville, the Madison County seat.

Postmaster

He served as Huntsville postmaster, maintaining a direct relationship with the federal government and local public life.

Madison County Record

Orval and Alta purchased the weekly Madison County Record. The newspaper became both a business and a political platform.

Education Editorials

Faubus used the paper to advocate better schools and stronger public investment.

Healthcare Editorials

He also wrote in favor of improved healthcare and state services.

Highway Editorials

Road construction was another major concern, particularly for isolated rural communities.

Sidney McMath

Governor Sidney McMath recognized Faubus as a useful ally and emerging organizer.

GI Revolt

McMath was associated with the Arkansas GI Revolt, a postwar reform movement challenging entrenched courthouse and machine politics.

1948 McMath Campaign

Faubus campaigned for McMath's successful 1948 gubernatorial effort.

Arkansas Highway Commission

McMath rewarded Faubus with appointment to the State Highway Commission.

Statewide Political Contacts

The highway post exposed Faubus to political activists, contractors, local officials, and community leaders throughout Arkansas.

Governor's Administrative Assistant

Faubus later served as an administrative assistant in the governor's office, expanding his knowledge of state administration.

Francis Cherry

Francis Cherry defeated McMath and became governor, setting up Faubus's insurgent challenge in 1954.

1954 Gubernatorial Campaign

Faubus entered the race as an underdog with little statewide public recognition.

Economic Populism

He attacked utility interests, elite influence, and perceived indifference toward ordinary Arkansans.

Welfare Politics

Faubus used Cherry's disparaging references to some welfare recipients as evidence that the incumbent looked down on poor and elderly citizens.

Commonwealth College Attack

Cherry's campaign publicized Faubus's youthful Commonwealth College connection in an attempt to portray him as dangerously radical.

Why the Red Scare Attack Failed

The accusation clashed with Faubus's military record, rural image, and mainstream Democratic campaign, and voters largely rejected it.

Democratic Runoff Victory

Faubus defeated Cherry in the runoff by roughly seven thousand votes.

Pratt Remmel

In the general election, Faubus defeated Republican Little Rock mayor Pratt Remmel by a large margin.

Thirty-Sixth Governor

Faubus took office as Arkansas's thirty-sixth governor in January 1955.

First-Term Reform Image

His early governorship emphasized practical improvements rather than racial confrontation.

Teacher Pay

The administration substantially increased teacher salaries as state revenues and economic conditions improved.

Public Education Spending

Faubus supported broader investment in public schools and educational infrastructure.

Arkansas State Hospital

He initiated reforms at the state mental hospital, whose conditions had become a public embarrassment.

Arkansas Children's Colony

His administration created the Arkansas Children's Colony for children then described by the state as developmentally disabled.

State Parks

Faubus expanded the Arkansas state-park system.

Highway Construction

Hundreds of miles of roads were paved during his governorship.

Industrialization

Arkansas industrialized rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s, and Faubus promoted manufacturing recruitment.

Patronage

Infrastructure and state appointments also strengthened Faubus's political organization and control over local allies.

Race Before Little Rock

Before the Central High crisis, Faubus was widely regarded as a racial moderate by the standards of white Arkansas politics.

Arkansas's Early Desegregation

Several Arkansas school districts desegregated before Little Rock without the state government deploying troops to stop them.

Charleston

Charleston became one of the earliest formerly segregated school districts in the old Confederacy to begin classroom integration.

Fayetteville

Fayetteville also moved toward desegregation with comparatively little public conflict.

Hoxie

The Hoxie school board faced intense segregationist resistance after integrating its schools in 1955.

Citizens' Council Movement

White Citizens' Council organizations attempted to use economic, political, and social pressure to stop school integration.

Justice Jim Johnson

James D. 'Justice Jim' Johnson emerged as Arkansas's most forceful segregationist politician.

1956 Johnson Challenge

Johnson challenged Faubus for governor in 1956, making school segregation a central issue.

Faubus Moves Right

Faubus responded by promising protection of segregated institutions and distancing himself from the earlier local-control posture.

Political Calculation

Arkansas historians describe Faubus as believing that strict compliance with federal desegregation law could destroy his political future.

Amendment 44

Arkansas voters adopted the interposition amendment in 1956, formally ordering state resistance to the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions.

Interposition

Interposition asserted that a state could place itself between federal authority and its citizens when state leaders believed federal action unconstitutional.

Supremacy Clause Conflict

The constitutional system of the United States does not permit a state to nullify binding federal constitutional law simply by declaring disagreement.

Shaver Committee

Faubus appointed a committee to study methods of maintaining segregated schools after Brown.

1957 Segregation Laws

The Arkansas legislature adopted a series of anti-integration measures that Faubus signed.

Arkansas State Sovereignty Commission

Act 83 created a state commission ostensibly designed to protect Arkansas sovereignty from federal encroachment.

Commission Investigatory Powers

The commission received authority to inspect records and investigate organizations and individuals it considered relevant to integration disputes.

NAACP as a Target

Faubus publicly indicated that the system could be used to monitor or potentially act against the NAACP.

Limits of the Sovereignty Commission

Despite its sweeping statutory powers, the Arkansas commission apparently met only twice and proved less operationally aggressive than similar bodies in some other states.

Capital Citizens' Council

Little Rock segregationists organized the Capital Citizens' Council to oppose implementation of school integration.

Mothers' League of Central High

The Mothers' League of Central High became another important local segregationist pressure group.

Virgil Blossom

Little Rock superintendent Virgil Blossom developed a gradual desegregation plan that sought to minimize conflict.

The Blossom Plan

The plan began with a small number of Black students at Central High and postponed broader integration.

NAACP Criticism of the Plan

Daisy Bates and other Black leaders considered the plan too slow and limited even as segregationists considered any integration unacceptable.

Aaron v. Cooper

The NAACP challenged the school district in federal court, and the litigation became the legal framework within which the Little Rock crisis unfolded.

Federal Court Approval

Federal courts approved the district's gradual plan and retained jurisdiction, making implementation a binding legal obligation.

Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP, became the principal local organizer supporting the Black students.

L. C. Bates

L. C. Bates, newspaper publisher and Daisy Bates's husband, also played a major role in the local civil-rights campaign.

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall was among the principal attorneys defending the students' constitutional rights.

Wiley Branton

Arkansas attorney Wiley Branton represented Black families and became a central legal figure in the desegregation litigation.

The Students Selected

A small group of Black students was chosen from a larger pool to integrate Central High under the district plan.

The Little Rock Nine

The students were Melba Pattillo, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls, and Thelma Mothershed.

Ten Became Nine

Another student, Jane Hill, withdrew after threats placed intense pressure on her family, leaving the group historically remembered as the Nine.

Arthur Caldwell Meeting

Justice Department civil-rights official Arthur Caldwell met with Faubus in late August 1957 regarding fears of possible violence.

Federal Responsibility for Order

The federal government declined to promise in advance that it would assume responsibility for ordinary local public order.

Faubus's Anger at Washington

Faubus portrayed this as Washington demanding integration while leaving Arkansas alone to handle the resulting unrest.

Chancery Injunction

A state chancery judge temporarily attempted to block desegregation on the ground that it could produce violence.

Judge Ronald Davies

Federal district judge Ronald Davies nullified the state injunction and ordered the school district to proceed.

September 2 Television Address

Faubus announced on television that he had mobilized the Arkansas National Guard around Central High.

Claim of Preventing Violence

He insisted that disorder and threatened violence required the deployment.

Actual Guard Orders

The Guard was directed to keep Black students from schools previously operated for white students.

September 3 Opening Day

School officials advised the Black students not to attempt attendance on the first day while the Guard confrontation developed.

September 4 Attempt

The students attempted to enter Central High on September 4 and were turned away by National Guardsmen.

Elizabeth Eckford

Elizabeth Eckford arrived separately because she had not received notice of the group's changed meeting arrangements.

The Mob Around Eckford

A hostile white crowd followed, insulted, threatened, and humiliated Eckford as she attempted to leave the school area.

Images Around the World

Press photographs of Eckford's ordeal became some of the most recognizable images of school desegregation.

Grace Lorch

Grace Lorch, a white educator and civil-rights supporter, helped Eckford reach safety after the mob confrontation.

National Guard as State Barrier

Faubus had transformed a state military force into a physical barrier between Black students and a federally protected constitutional right.

Eisenhower's Initial Reluctance

President Eisenhower personally preferred gradual social change and was reluctant to use federal troops, but he regarded compliance with federal courts as non-negotiable.

September 5 Telegram

Eisenhower warned Faubus that the federal Constitution would be upheld by every legal means available to the presidency.

Faubus Press Conferences

Faubus continued defending his Guard deployment and framing the crisis as a problem of public order and federal coercion.

Federal Injunction Proceedings

The Justice Department pursued an injunction against Faubus and Guard officials for interfering with the desegregation order.

Brooks Hays

Arkansas congressman Brooks Hays attempted to mediate between Faubus and Eisenhower.

Newport Meeting

Faubus met Eisenhower at the naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 14, 1957.

Conflicting Expectations After Newport

Eisenhower believed Faubus had promised cooperation with federal court decisions; Faubus's public formulation was more ambiguous.

No Durable Agreement

The Newport meeting produced cordial statements but no functioning solution to the crisis.

September 20 Injunction

Judge Davies ruled that the National Guard deployment had not been justified as a genuine peacekeeping measure and enjoined further obstruction.

Faubus Removes the Guard

Faubus complied with the injunction by removing the state troops from Central High.

Leaving for Governors' Conference

Faubus left Arkansas for a southern governors' conference as local officials prepared for another attempt at integration.

September 23 Entry

The students entered Central High on September 23 while Little Rock police attempted to control the crowd.

Attack on Black Reporters

Members of the mob chased and beat Black journalists covering the event.

Police Lose Control

Local authorities feared the crowd could storm the school and endanger the students.

Students Evacuated

Police removed the Black students from Central High for their safety.

Woodrow Wilson Mann

Little Rock mayor Woodrow Mann asked President Eisenhower for federal assistance.

Presidential Proclamation 3204

Eisenhower issued a proclamation ordering those obstructing federal law and court orders to disperse.

Executive Order 10730

On September 24, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and authorized use of regular Army forces.

101st Airborne Division

Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division deployed to Little Rock to enforce court orders and protect the students.

Federalizing the Arkansas Guard

The Guard units Faubus had used to block integration were placed under federal command and then used to support enforcement of integration.

September 24 Presidential Address

Eisenhower addressed the nation, arguing that mob rule could not override the courts.

Faubus's 'Occupied Territory' Rhetoric

Faubus denounced the federal troop presence as coercive occupation and used the imagery to strengthen white resistance politics.

September 25 First Full Day

The Little Rock Nine entered Central High under federal military escort and completed their first full day of classes.

Federal Troops Inside the School

Military personnel protected students in hallways and accompanied them between classes.

Limits of Military Protection

Guards could not accompany the students into every classroom, bathroom, or locker room, leaving opportunities for harassment.

Daily Harassment

The Nine endured insults, physical attacks, threats, and organized attempts by some white students to drive them from the school.

Minnijean Brown

Minnijean Brown was suspended and later expelled after retaliating during sustained harassment.

One Down, Eight to Go

Segregationist students circulated cards celebrating Brown's expulsion and demanding removal of the remaining students.

Ernest Green

Ernest Green remained through the year and became Central High School's first Black graduate.

Martin Luther King Jr. at Graduation

Martin Luther King Jr. attended Green's 1958 graduation ceremony.

Little Rock as Cold War Crisis

Images of troops escorting Black children to school damaged the United States' international image during the Cold War.

International Press

Foreign newspapers used Little Rock to challenge American claims of democratic leadership.

Federalism

The crisis became a major test of whether a state governor could use state military power to obstruct federal constitutional rights.

Brown v. Board Enforcement

Little Rock demonstrated that a Supreme Court ruling without executive enforcement could be resisted by state and local officials.

Cooper v. Aaron

The legal struggle culminated in the Supreme Court's 1958 decision in Cooper v. Aaron.

Supreme Court Supremacy

The Court reaffirmed that state officials were bound by the Constitution and Supreme Court interpretations of it and could not evade Brown through resistance measures.

No State Veto Over Constitutional Rights

Faubus's resistance did not create a lawful state veto over federal constitutional commands.

Political Victory Within Defeat

Although Faubus lost the constitutional showdown, his popularity among many white voters increased.

1958 Reelection

He won a third term decisively and carried all seventy-five Arkansas counties in the Democratic primary.

Special Legislative Session

Faubus called a special session in August 1958 to prepare new methods of resisting desegregation.

Sixteen Resistance Bills

The legislature enacted a broad package of measures aimed at delaying integration, policing organizations, and closing schools.

Act 4 of 1958

Act 4 authorized closure of public schools threatened with racial integration.

Act 5 of 1958

Act 5 attempted to allow state education funds to follow displaced students to alternative institutions.

Supreme Court Emergency Action

In September 1958 the Supreme Court ordered Little Rock to continue the desegregation plan without the delay sought by local officials.

Faubus Closes the High Schools

Faubus invoked the new state authority to close all four Little Rock public high schools.

Four Schools Closed

Central High, Hall High, Little Rock Technical High, and Horace Mann High were closed.

Nearly Four Thousand Students

The closures disrupted the education of nearly four thousand young people.

Teachers in Empty Schools

Teachers and administrators continued reporting to empty buildings because their contracts remained in force.

Football During the Lost Year

High-school football continued even though regular academic instruction had been suspended.

September 27 Referendum

Little Rock voters were asked whether to reopen schools under a ballot framed as accepting racial integration.

Three-to-One Vote

Voters chose by a large margin to keep the schools closed rather than accept the integration required by federal law.

Private Schools for White Students

New private institutions opened and absorbed substantial numbers of displaced white students.

Black Students' Limited Alternatives

Black students had far fewer private-school options and faced greater educational displacement.

Half of Black Students Without School

Arkansas historical research estimates that about half of the displaced Black high-school students received no schooling during the Lost Year.

Long-Term Educational Damage

Students lost credits, transferred across state lines, entered work early, or dropped out entirely.

Women's Emergency Committee

Prominent Little Rock women organized the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools.

Adolphine Terry

Adolphine Terry became a prominent defender of reopening public schools.

Vivion Brewer

Vivion Brewer helped organize white resistance to the school-closing policy.

Business Opposition

Little Rock business leaders increasingly worried that segregationist conflict was damaging economic development and the city's reputation.

School Board Purge

Segregationist school-board members fired forty-four teachers and administrators in May 1959.

STOP

Stop This Outrageous Purge organized to recall segregationist school-board members.

CROSS

The Committee to Retain Our Segregated Schools organized to defend the segregationist board faction.

Recall Election

Little Rock voters removed the segregationist board members in May 1959.

Federal Court Ends Closure System

A federal court ruled the school-closing and funding scheme unconstitutional.

Schools Reopen

Little Rock high schools reopened in August 1959 with limited integration.

Act 10 of 1958

Act 10 required state employees to disclose organizations to which they belonged or contributed.

Affidavit Law

The measure placed political and associational pressure on teachers and other public workers.

Act 115 of 1959

Act 115 prohibited state employment of NAACP members.

Anti-NAACP Strategy

The state attempted to weaken civil-rights litigation by targeting the organization providing legal and political support.

First Amendment Problems

Later constitutional decisions established strong protection against government efforts to punish citizens merely for lawful political association.

HB 385 Blood Labeling Law

Faubus signed a 1959 law requiring blood donations to be identified by race.

Race and Medical Policy

The blood-labeling law reflected segregationist assumptions that race should structure even medical administration.

Negro Boys Industrial School

Arkansas maintained a separate institution near Wrightsville for Black boys committed by juvenile authorities.

Known Inferior Conditions

A 1956 sociological study had documented severe deficiencies in clothing, sanitation, water, facilities, and vocational education at the institution.

March 5, 1959 Fire

A dormitory burned in the early morning hours, killing twenty-one Black boys.

Locked Doors

The dormitory doors had been locked from the outside, forcing surviving boys to escape through windows.

Forty-Eight Survivors

Forty-eight boys managed to escape the burning building.

State Responsibility Versus Personal Causation

The fire should not be described as personally ordered or caused by Faubus, but the institution operated under the state government he led.

Segregated Institutional Inequality

The disaster exposed extreme disparities between white and Black state juvenile institutions.

Faubus and Public Reputation After Wrightsville

The fire compounded criticism of Arkansas's racial and institutional record during the height of Faubus's national notoriety.

Arkansas Loan and Thrift

The Arkansas Loan and Thrift scandal became one example used by critics to describe corruption and lax regulation during the Faubus years.

Political Corruption

Faubus's long tenure produced a large patronage network and recurring accusations that state government served political allies.

Highway Politics

Road construction improved transportation while also creating opportunities for patronage and political influence.

Public-Service Accomplishments

The administration's tangible accomplishments helped explain why many voters continued supporting Faubus even after racial conflict subsided.

Children's Colony Politics

Faubus frequently invoked the Arkansas Children's Colony as evidence that critics threatened valuable public programs.

Faubusism

The governor himself used the term 'Faubusism' to refer to the combination of public services, populist rhetoric, political organization, and personal leadership associated with his administration.

Sid McMath Becomes an Opponent

Former ally Sidney McMath later challenged Faubus but failed to dislodge him.

Winthrop Rockefeller

Industrialist and reform-minded Republican Winthrop Rockefeller became one of the leading opponents of the Faubus political system.

Dale Alford

Congressman Dale Alford, elected during the segregationist backlash of 1958, also later became a Faubus rival.

Bruce Bennett

Attorney General Bruce Bennett was a major segregationist ally in constructing anti-integration legislation before later challenging Faubus politically.

Arkansas Gazette

The Arkansas Gazette became the most influential newspaper critic of Faubus's segregationist course.

Pulitzer Recognition

The Gazette's Little Rock crisis coverage and editorial stance received national recognition.

African American Opposition

Black Arkansans opposed Faubus through the NAACP, churches, litigation, journalism, electoral action, and local organizing.

White Moderate Opposition

Many white opponents focused first on law, education, civic reputation, and economic stability rather than immediate broad racial equality.

Racial Moderation and Political Responsibility

A politician does not need the most extreme private prejudice to produce segregationist policy when political incentives reward obstruction.

Hiring Black State Employees

Faubus's administration hired a number of Black people in state government.

Funding Historically Black Institutions

The administration provided state support to historically Black colleges and other institutions.

Poll Tax Reform

Faubus later supported efforts to replace Arkansas's discriminatory poll-tax registration system.

Amendment 51

Arkansas eventually adopted a modern voter-registration system that eliminated the poll tax as the central registration mechanism.

Why These Facts Matter

The existence of some racially moderate or beneficial actions makes Faubus's Central High decisions more clearly choices rather than unavoidable products of a fixed ideology.

Six Consecutive Terms

Faubus won six consecutive two-year terms, serving from 1955 through 1967.

Longest Arkansas Governorship

His twelve-year tenure remains the longest continuous governorship in Arkansas history.

No Seventh-Term Bid

Faubus did not seek another consecutive term in 1966.

1966 Political Transition

The absence of Faubus opened space for a realignment in Arkansas politics.

Winthrop Rockefeller Elected

Republican Winthrop Rockefeller won the governorship in 1966, ending nearly a century of continuous Democratic gubernatorial control since Reconstruction.

1967 Departure

Faubus left office in January 1967 without having been defeated for reelection as an incumbent.

Post-Governor Political Machine

Former allies attempted to preserve the Faubus organization after his departure, but Arkansas politics was changing.

1970 Comeback Attempt

Faubus sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1970 but failed.

1974 Comeback Attempt

He tried again in 1974 and again lost.

1986 Comeback Attempt

At age seventy-six he made one final gubernatorial attempt in 1986.

Changing Electorate

Black enfranchisement, generational change, party realignment, and new political issues reduced the usefulness of the old Faubus coalition.

Dogpatch USA

Faubus briefly served as general manager of Dogpatch USA, a theme park based on the Li'l Abner comic strip.

Financial Decline

His personal financial position deteriorated after leaving the governor's office.

Divorce from Alta

Orval and Alta Faubus divorced in 1969 after decades of marriage.

Elizabeth Westmoreland

Faubus married Elizabeth Westmoreland after his first divorce.

Elizabeth's 1983 Murder

Elizabeth Faubus was murdered in Houston in 1983 while the couple was separating. Orval Faubus was not charged or identified as the killer.

Farrell's Death

Faubus's only son, Farrell, died by suicide in 1976, a major personal tragedy.

Jan Hines Wittenberg

Faubus married teacher Jan Hines Wittenberg in 1986.

Memoirs

He published autobiographical volumes titled Down from the Hills and Down from the Hills II.

Shaping His Own Legacy

Faubus's memoirs defended his interpretation of the Central High crisis and broader political career.

Increasing Conservatism

In later years he moved toward more conservative political positions and sometimes encouraged Republican candidates.

Continued Democratic Identity

Faubus nevertheless insisted that he remained personally loyal to the Democratic Party.

Frank White

Republican governor Frank White appointed Faubus state director of veterans' affairs.

Veterans' Affairs

The appointment became Faubus's final major public position.

Later Years in Conway

Faubus lived in Conway with Jan during his final years.

Prostate Cancer

His health declined from complications associated with prostate cancer.

Death

Faubus died on December 14, 1994, at age eighty-four.

Combs Cemetery

He was buried in Combs Cemetery in Madison County near the Ozark community of his childhood.

Did Faubus Personally Hate Black People?

Historical evidence cannot reliably reduce his actions to a simple private-emotion diagnosis. Arkansas historians generally describe a politician who had previously shown racial moderation but chose segregationist resistance when it became electorally advantageous.

Was Faubus Always a Segregationist Hard-Liner?

No. He supported segregation within the existing Arkansas system, but he did not begin his governorship with the hard-line profile he acquired after 1956 and 1957.

Was Faubus a Communist?

No credible evidence establishes that Faubus was a Communist Party leader or operative. His youthful Commonwealth College attendance became a Red Scare campaign attack.

Was Faubus a Socialist?

He was raised by a socialist father and briefly attended a left-wing college, but his adult political career was firmly rooted in the Democratic Party rather than the Socialist Party.

Did Faubus Integrate Arkansas Before Little Rock?

Several Arkansas communities desegregated while Faubus was governor and without state interference. That does not mean Faubus personally led an integration campaign.

Did Faubus Call the Guard Only to Prevent Violence?

Preventing disorder was his public justification, but his orders and the Guard's actual conduct physically prevented Black students from entering Central High.

Did Faubus Defy a Supreme Court Order Directly on September 4?

The immediate operational orders flowed through federal district-court litigation implementing Brown. The broader constitutional obligation originated in the Supreme Court's desegregation rulings.

Did Eisenhower Immediately Send Troops on September 4?

No. Eisenhower first pursued warnings, legal action, and negotiation. Federal troops were deployed only after the September 23 mob crisis.

Did Faubus and Eisenhower Reach an Agreement at Newport?

They issued conciliatory statements, but their understandings diverged and no durable operational settlement resulted.

Did Faubus Refuse the September 20 Federal Injunction?

He ultimately removed the Guard after Judge Davies enjoined further interference.

Why Did Federal Troops Become Necessary?

After the Guard left, local police could not control the violent segregationist crowd when the students entered on September 23.

Did Faubus Command the 101st Airborne?

No. Eisenhower deployed the 101st under federal authority.

Why Federalize the Arkansas Guard?

Federalization removed the Guard from Faubus's control and turned it from an obstruction force into part of the federal enforcement structure.

Was the Little Rock Nine Crisis Only Symbolic?

No. The students lost instructional time, endured physical and psychological abuse, and required military protection to exercise a constitutional right.

Did the Little Rock Nine Attend Together as a Group?

They attended the same school but generally did not share classes and were intentionally separated through the school day.

Did Faubus Win the Legal Battle?

No. Federal courts rejected state obstruction and integration proceeded.

Did Faubus Win Politically?

In the short term, yes. His resistance greatly strengthened his popularity among many white Arkansas voters and helped sustain four more reelections.

Did Faubus Close Only Central High in 1958?

No. He closed all four public high schools in the Little Rock district.

Did Closing the Schools Affect Only Black Students?

No. Thousands of white students were also displaced, although white families had much greater access to private-school alternatives.

Was the Lost Year a Local School-Board Decision Alone?

No. State legislation championed and signed by Faubus provided the mechanism, and the governor invoked it to close the schools.

Did the Lost Year End Because Faubus Voluntarily Reversed Course?

No. Local political resistance, school-board changes, economic pressure, and federal court rulings combined to end the closure system.

Was the Arkansas State Sovereignty Commission as Active as Mississippi's?

No. Arkansas's commission received sweeping legal authority but appears to have met only twice and never developed the same extensive operational machinery.

Did Faubus Personally Cause the Wrightsville Fire?

No evidence establishes that he caused or ordered the fire. His administration nevertheless bore responsibility for a segregated state institution whose dangerous conditions had been documented.

Did Faubus Have Genuine Policy Accomplishments?

Yes. Education funding, mental-health reform, roads, parks, institutional development, and preservation of the Buffalo River form an important part of his record.

Do Those Accomplishments Reduce His Civil-Rights Responsibility?

No. Government officials can produce beneficial policies in one area while violating constitutional rights in another.

Was Faubus More Moderate Than George Wallace?

Before the Little Rock crisis his record was more moderate than Wallace's later segregationist image. Both men, however, chose to use executive power against school integration.

Faubus Versus Bull Connor

Connor had long built his identity around municipal segregation and police power. Faubus's most notorious racial turn emerged from statewide electoral calculation and a constitutional confrontation over school integration.

Faubus Versus Ross Barnett

Barnett entered the Mississippi governorship as an outspoken segregationist. Faubus's prior moderation makes his political shift especially instructive.

Faubus Versus Jim Johnson

Justice Jim Johnson pressured Faubus from the segregationist right and helped create the electoral incentives that pushed the governor toward resistance.

Faubus and Eisenhower

Their conflict was less a personal feud than a constitutional contest over whether state executive authority could obstruct federal court orders.

Faubus and Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates represented the local Black civic organization and legal persistence that Faubus's resistance attempted to defeat.

Faubus and Elizabeth Eckford

Eckford's September 4 ordeal became the human image of a policy decision made at the governor's level.

Faubus and Ernest Green

Green's graduation demonstrated the ultimate failure of Faubus's attempt to keep Central High completely segregated.

Faubus and the Arkansas Gazette

The newspaper's criticism showed that white Arkansas opinion was never uniformly behind the governor.

Faubus and the Women's Emergency Committee

The Lost Year produced organized white opposition centered on preservation of public education and civic stability.

Political Ambition and Racism

Faubus's record demonstrates that racist outcomes can arise from opportunistic political incentives even when a politician's private ideology is more complicated.

Institutional Responsibility

Faubus's significance lies not only in words but in his control of the National Guard, legislative agenda, executive agencies, patronage, and public communication.

Constitutional Significance

Little Rock became a defining example of the supremacy of federal constitutional rights over state resistance.

Civil-Rights Significance

The crisis demonstrated that Black children sometimes required federal military protection simply to attend a public school.

Cold War Significance

Little Rock exposed the contradiction between American democratic rhetoric abroad and racial exclusion at home.

Political Significance

Faubus helped demonstrate the electoral power of white backlash and anti-federal rhetoric in postwar southern politics.

Arkansas Significance

His twelve years in office reshaped the state's institutions, highways, party organization, racial politics, and public image.

Historical Significance

Faubus connects Ozark socialism, New Deal populism, World War II veteran politics, postwar modernization, massive resistance, the Little Rock Nine, federalism, school closure, civil-rights law, and southern political realignment.

Legacy

Orval Faubus remains one of the clearest examples of a politician whose most infamous act was not inevitable from his early biography. He possessed genuine reform instincts and had previously tolerated limited racial change, yet he chose to turn state military and legislative power against Black students when segregationist pressure threatened his political position. That choice became the defining fact of his public life.

Timeline

Key Individuals

Key Organizations and Institutions

Geographic Scope

Madison County and the Ozark Mountains shaped Faubus's childhood, rural political identity, and final burial.

Huntsville became the center of his newspaper and early postwar political career.

Little Rock became the center of his governorship and the international civil-rights crisis that defined him.

Newport, Rhode Island, became the site of his failed effort to reach an understanding with President Eisenhower.

Central High School became the principal physical symbol of Faubus's constitutional confrontation with the federal government.

Wrightsville became associated with another racial tragedy during his administration through the 1959 Negro Boys Industrial School fire.

Legal and Constitutional Context

Faubus governed during the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education, which held state-mandated public-school segregation unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Federal district and appellate courts approved and enforced Little Rock's gradual desegregation plan.

State interposition and sovereignty measures could not lawfully override the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.

The federal injunction against Faubus, Eisenhower's use of military authority, and the Supreme Court's decision in Cooper v. Aaron together established that state officials could not obstruct constitutional rights by invoking local opposition or political disagreement.

Later litigation protecting freedom of association also undermined Arkansas efforts to penalize NAACP membership and lawful political organization.

Related Events

Related Concepts

Cross References

Further Reading