Orval E. Faubus
Orval E. Faubus was an American politician who served as the governor of Arkansas for over 10 years, making him the longest-serving governor in the state's history. Born in rural northwestern Arkansas, Faubus began his political career in the late 1930s and gained prominence during World War II. He became a significant figure during the civil rights movement, particularly known for his controversial role in the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Faced with federal mandates to integrate schools, Faubus initially opposed these efforts by deploying the National Guard to prevent African American students from entering the school, an event that drew national attention and criticism.
Despite being hailed by some as a defender of states' rights, he was also widely condemned as a symbol of racial segregation. Faubus was re-elected four more times but faced growing challenges and eventually retired in 1967. His later years were marked by personal struggles and attempts at political comebacks, but he remained largely out of the public eye until his death. Faubus's legacy is complex, encapsulating the tensions of race relations in the South during a pivotal period in American history.
Orval E. Faubus
- Born: January 7, 1910
- Birthplace: Greasy Creek, near Combs, Arkansas
- Died: December 14, 1994
- Place of death: Conway, Arkansas
Arkansas governor (1955-1967) and segregationist
Cause of notoriety: Governor of Arkansas during the American Civil Rights movement, Faubus tried to prevent Little Rock schools from being integrated.
Active: 1955-1967
Locale: United States, mainly Arkansas
Early Life
Orval E. Faubus (FAH-bus) was born in rural northwestern Arkansas. His father was an active member of the socialist party in the area. Faubus worked on small farms, taught school, and attended various high schools until the mid-1930s. He was elected to county offices in 1938 and 1940. During World War II he served in the Army overseas, rising to the rank of major. He wrote a column for his hometown paper during his time with General George Patton’s Third Army. When he returned home he bought the paper and soon created alliances with the reform wing of the Democratic Party in Arkansas. He was appointed to an important state commission in the late 1940s and served as director of the state highway commission in 1951. In 1952, Faubus’s political mentor Governor Sid McMath was defeated for a third term by a conservative east Arkansas judge named Francis Cherry.
Political Career
Faubus sought the Democratic nomination for governor of Arkansas in 1954, campaigning as a moderate. During the campaign he was smeared as communist sympathizer by some opponents but was nonetheless elected to his first two-year term in 1954. During his first term, civil rights issues became prominent throughout the South but were not largely present in Faubus’s campaign for reelection in 1956.
Soon after reelection, Faubus faced the issue of integration head-on. A federal plan for desegregation of the Little Rock public schools was set to take effect in September of 1957. Under pressure from arch-segregationists, Faubus tried several tactics to delay the plan’s implementation. When a federal judge rejected his means of delay, Faubus called upon the National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering the Central High School building. On September 2, Faubus addressed the state, saying he feared violence if integration proceeded. The troops remained in Little Rock for three weeks while state and federal officials attempted to reach a compromise. Faubus met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an attempt to resolve the crisis, but the two found little upon which to agree. After being rebuffed by the federal courts, Faubus removed the National Guard and left the state for a governors’ conference.
On September 23, the so-called Little Rock Nine were admitted to Central High. The following day, Eisenhower federalized the state guard and sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to maintain order. In 1958, Faubus attempted to close the Little Rock school district rather than have it integrated. A coalition of progressives and pro-business moderates eventually won control of the school board. Integration continued throughout Arkansas at a slow but steady pace through the 1950s and 1960s.
After Central High
After the Central High crisis, Faubus was hailed by some as a hero and castigated by many as a villain. However, he was reelected governor of Arkansas four more times, his being the longest reign in state history. He came closest to defeat in the 1964 general election, when moderate Republican Winthrop Rockefeller received more than 40 percent of the vote. Despite his reputation as a conservative, Faubus supported many populist causes throughout his career, including utility regulation and conservation of natural forestland. Faubus retired from the governor’s mansion in 1967. Rockefeller’s winning the election that year set the standard for a series of moderate to liberal governors during the following twenty years.
Faubus’s life after 1967 was generally not prosperous. Moments of public notoriety came from personal problems and tragedies and attempted political comebacks. He sought—and lost—the nomination for governor in 1970 and 1974. In 1977, when Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine, was named assistant U.S. secretary of labor, Faubus was working as a bank teller in Huntsville, Arkansas. He made a modest return to public life under Republican Governor Frank White when he was named director of the state’s Veterans Bureau in 1981. Faubus lived the last years of the life in ill health and obscurity.
Impact
Orval E. Faubus became a symbol of southern resistance to federally enforced integration. He was named one of the ten most admired men in America in 1958 by a Gallup poll. Whether Faubus was a true believer or simply a political opportunist will never be completely known. He was never the fire-breathing orator other southern demagogues were, nor did he seek a place on the national stage like Alabama governor George Wallace. Indeed, after 1958 Faubus seemed to have no influence outside the state of Arkansas.
Further Reading
Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. 1962. Reprint. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1987. This is the story of the Central High crisis from the perspective of the head of the state’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Donovan, Timothy P., and Willard Gatewood, Jr., eds. The Governors of Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1981. This volume contains short biographies of all of Arkansas’s governors to 1981.
Johnson, Ben F., III. Arkansas in Modern America, 1930-1999. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. This volume concentrates on the times that led to the integration crisis and its impact.
Reed, Roy. Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997. This is the definitive full-length biography of Faubus.