Orval Eugene Faubus (7 January 1910 – 14 December 1994) was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas,
having served from 1955-1967. He is best known for his
1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied the United
States Supreme Court by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to stop
African American students from attending Little Rock Central High School.
Early life
Faubus was born to John Samuel Faubus and the former Addie Joslen in the Combs community near Huntsville in Madison County in northwestern
Arkansas. Because of a premature birth, he weighed only four pounds. According to his father, "Little Orval was different to most
boys. 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, Sam Faubus became active locally in a number of movements. He formed a Socialist Party of America local among his neighbors and wrote lengthy essays for the Madison
County newspaper. He 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 United States entry into World War I brought suspicion down on opposition political sentiments. Sam
Faubus and a friend were arrested in 1918 for having violated the Sedition Act: "distributing seditious material" and "uttering numerous disloyal remarks."
Attended Commonwealth College at Mena, Arkansas.
Early political career
Despite managing just an eighth-grade education, Faubus passed a teaching examination in 1928
and taught for a time in the rural community of Pinnacle. He eventually earned his
high school diploma but spent his summers during this era riding trains to pick fruit across the country.
Faubus' first political race was in 1936 when he contested a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives. He finished 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 the Third Army of General George S. Patton, Jr. He rose to the rank of major and was in combat
several times. He was active in veterans' causes for the remainder of his life.
When Faubus returned from the war, he cultivated ties with leaders of Arkansas's Democratic Party, particularly with
progressive reform Governor Sidney Sanders McMath, leader of the post-war "GI Revolt" against
corruption, whom he served as director of the state's highway commission. Meanwhile,
conservative Francis Cherry defeated McMath's bid
for a third term in the 1952 Democratic primary. Cherry became unpopular with voters, and Faubus
challenged him in the 1954 primary.
In the 1954 campaign Faubus was compelled to defend his attendance at the defunct northwest Arkansas Commonwealth College as well as his early political upbringing. Commonwealth College had
been formed by leftist academic and social activists, some of whom later were revealed to have had close ties with the
Communist Party United States of America. Most of those who attended and taught
there were idealistic young people who sought an education or, in the case of the faculty, a job which came with room and
board.
During the runoff, Cherry and his surrogates accused Faubus of having attended a "communist" school and implied that his
sympathies remained leftist. Faubus at first denied attending, then admitted enrolling "for only a few weeks." Later, it was
shown that he had remained at the school for more than a year, during which he was elected study body president. Faubus led a
group of students who testified on behalf of the college's accreditation before the state legislature. Nevertheless, efforts to
paint the candidate as a communist sympathizer backfired in a climate of growing resentment against such allegations. Faubus
hence narrowly defeated Cherry to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Relations were cool between the two men for years,
but when Cherry died in 1965, Faubus put politics aside and was magnanimous in praising his
predecessor.
After he defeated Cherry, Faubus won a 63-37 percent general election victory over
Pratt C. Remmel, the Republican mayor of Little Rock. Remmel, a businessman and scion of a prominent
Republican family, polled the strongest vote for a GOP candidate since
the Reconstruction.
The attacks of the 1954 election seem to have made Faubus sensitive to attacks from the political right. It has been suggested
that this sensitivity contributed to his later stance against integration when he was challenged by segregationist elements
within his party.
Faubus was known as a particularly effective one-on-one campaigner and was said to have never turned away one seeking to shake
his hands no matter how much time it took to greet the entire crowd.
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. His strong stand on this issue may seem surprising considering Faubus'
1954 run for governor as a progressive candidate promising to increase spending on schools and
roads. During 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 obtained legislative passage of a controversial tax to increase teacher salaries,
and he faced a primary election challenge from James Douglas "Jim" Johnson of Conway,
the segregationist leader of conservatives.
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 inherently unequal, was politically
motivated. The ensuing battle helped to shield him from the political fallout from the tax increase, and to diminish Johnson's
appeal.
Journalist Harry Ashmore (who won a
Pulitzer Prize for his columns on the subject) portrayed the fight over Central High as a
crisis manufactured by Faubus. Ashmore said that Faubus used the Guard to keep blacks out of Central High School because he was
frustrated by the success his political opponents were having in using segregationist rhetoric to arouse white voters.
Faubus' 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' 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.
Though Faubus later lost general popularity as a result of his stand against desegregation, at the time he was included among
the "Ten Men in the World Most Admired by Americans", according to the Gallup Poll for
1958. This dichotomy was later summed up as follows: Faubus was both the "best loved" and "most
hated" of Arkansas politicians of the second half of the twentieth century.
Faubus-style politics
Faubus was elected governor to six two-year terms and hence served for twelve years. He maintained a defiant, populist image
while at the same time, he shifted toward a less confrontational stance with the federal government, particularly during the
administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, with each of whom he remained cordial, and both of whom carried Arkansas.
In 1956, Faubus overwhelmed GOP candidate Roy Mitchell, 321,797 (80.7 percent) to 77,215 (19.4
percent). In 1958, he defeated George W. Johnson of Greenwood in Sebastian County by drawing 82.5 percent of the votes.
In 1960, Faubus handily defeated the Republican Henry M.
Britt, an attorney from Hot Springs, to
secure his fourth term as governor. Faubus polled 292,064 votes (69.2 percent) to Britt's 129,921 (30.8 percent). Britt was later
a circuit judge in Garland County from
1967 to 1983.
In 1962, Faubus broke with the White Citizens
Councils and other rightist groups, which endorsed U.S.
Representative Dale Alford in that year's gubernatorial primary. Faubus cast himself
as a moderate and barely secured a majority over Alford, McMath, and three other candidates. He then handily defeated the
Republican Willis Ricketts, a then 37-year-old pharmacist from Fayetteville in the general election.
While he was still an outcast from black leaders, Faubus nevertheless won a large percent of the black vote. In
1964, when he easily defeated the Republican Winthrop
Rockefeller, Faubus secured 81 percent of the black vote.
Faubus chose not to run for re-election to a seventh term in what would likely have been a difficult race in 1966. Former gubernatorial candidate Jim Johnson, by then an elected Arkansas Supreme Court justice, narrowly won the Democratic nomination over another justice, the
moderate Frank Holt. Johnson was then defeated in the general election by Rockefeller,
who became the state's first GOP governor since Reconstruction. Ironically, years later, Johnson himself became a Republican and
supported Governor Frank D. White, later a benefactor of Faubus.
In 1968, Faubus was among five people considered for the vice presidential slot of third-party
presidential candidate George C. Wallace, Jr. However, in light of 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 theme park in the Ozark
Mountains, Dogpatch USA. According to newspaper articles, Faubus was said to have
commented that managing the park was similar to running state government because some of the same tricks applied to both.
Faubus sought the governorship again in 1970, 1974, and
1986 but was defeated in the Democratic primaries by Dale
Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton,
respectively, each of whom went on to defeat Republican opponents. In his last race, 1986, Faubus polled 174,402 votes (33.5
percent) to Clinton's 315,397 (60.6 percent).
Faubus' decline occurred when the Democrats reformed their own party in response to public acceptance of the progressive
polices followed by Rockefeller. Thus, a new generation of popular Democratic candidates easily contrasted themselves favorably
in voters' minds with Faubus' old-style politics and a more conservative Republican Party which followed Rockefeller's tenure in
the state.
Joining the White administration
In the summer of 1981, Republican Governor White appointed Faubus to head the scandal-plagued
Arkansas Veterans Affairs Department, an agency which assists returning veterans in getting resettled. The appointment was
recommended by White's appointments secretary, Len E. Blaylock.
Former Rockefeller Republicans, such as National Committeewoman Leona Troxell of tiny
Rose Bud in White County, opposed the
appointment. Conservative Republicans, such as former state Representative Danny L. Patrick of
Faubus' Huntsville, however, tended to favor the choice in the expectation that former Faubus supporters might join the
GOP coalition. Pratt Remmel said that he would not have made the
selection of his former political rival but still supported White's judgment. Faubus remained in the veterans affairs position
until Bill Clinton, who returned to the governor's office early in 1983, replaced him.
Family tragedies and deaths
Faubus faced many personal tragedies over the next decade. He divorced his wife, the former
Celia Alta Haskins (August 31, 1912 - August 9, 2002) after thirty-eight years of marriage. Alta Faubus had been a
gracious and dignified first lady and developed a loyal following among the public. She was the daughter of Jesse Clarence
Haskins and the former Rachel Frances Shipp. Alta survived her husband by nearly eight years.
He quickly wed 30-year-old Elizabeth Westmoreland on March 21, 1969. She had come to
Arkansas to participate in a Democratic Party fundraising telethon. Faubus' financial position deteriorated to the point where he
was forced to accept a position as a bank teller in Huntsville and to sell his home. He also sold
copies of his scrapbook-style memoirs that he entitled Down From the Hills. The residence, a rambling modern ranch
"mansion" built on Governor's Hill overlooking Huntsville, had been financed by "contributions" from state employees, contractors
doing business with the state, and Hot Springs gambling interests.
Orval and Alta Faubus' only child, son Farrell Eugene Faubus (April 5, 1939 - June 16, 1976), was found dead of a
suicidal drug overdose at the home of a maternal aunt in Seattle, Washington. He had intended to relocate to Alaska but
apparently became despondent over his lack of financial resources. Farrell attended Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, where
he met and married, at the age of twenty in 1959, the former Martha Jo Culwell (born ca.
1940), the mother of his children from whom he was divorced at the time of his death. He thereafter
graduated from the University of Arkansas Law School and was an assistant
Arkansas attorney general in the early 1960s, prior to having relocated Washington State. David
Pryor, five years older than Farrell, recalls having befriended the governor's son in law school. Pryor described the younger
Faubus as "smart, very smart" but a "loner".
Faubus had trouble with Elizabeth's daughters too when they reached their teenaged years. Then, on March 3, 1983, Elizabeth was found strangled in the bathtub of the couple's home
in Houston. The Faubuses had separated in June 1982, and
Elizabeth filed for divorce four months later. Seven months after her death, David Helmond was
convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Faubus died of prostate cancer, with his third wife "Jan", a former teacher whom he
married in 1986, at his side. She was the former Janice A. Hines Wittenburg (January 23,
1943 - April 6, 1996), herself a
cancer victim. Survivors included his stepson, Jeff L. Wittenburg (born ca. 1971) of
Fayetteville, a stepdaughter, Donita Jan Wittenburg Cyr (born ca.
1967) of Conway; a brother, Doyle Faubus of Fayetteville; three sisters, Connie Tucker of
Elkins, Cressye Buckingham of Bridgeport,
Washington (July 31, 1916 - July 1995), and Bonnie Saleldo of Madera,
California; three granddaughters, Fara Elizabeth Faubus of Seattle and Ellen Faubus Kreth of Little Rock (daughters of
Farrell and Martha Jo Faubus) and Ashley Cyr of Conway.
The body lay in state on December 15, 1994, in the rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol. Services were held, first on December
16, at the Second Baptist Church in Conway and, then on December 17, at the First Baptist Church of Huntsville. Faubus is interred in Orval Faubus Memorial Gardens
in Combs near his parents and two infants of his and Alta's. Jan and Alta became friends over the years and sat together at the
funeral.
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
- Dean, Jerry. "'Best loved and most hated', Faubus outlived animosity", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 15, 1994,
p. 1.
- Faubus, Orval Eugene. Down from the Hills. Little Rock: Democrat Printing & Lithographing, 1980. 510 pp.
- Hathorn, Billy, "Friendly Rivalry: Winthrop Rockefeller Challenges Orval Faubus in 1964", Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 1993 53 (4): 446-473. Issn: 0004-1823
- Elizabeth Jacoway. Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation (2007)
- "Orval Faubus is dead at 84", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 15, 1994, p. 1
- 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
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."
External Links
References
- "Orval Faubus is dead at 84", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 15, 1994
- Orval E. Faubus, Down From the Hills, memoirs (1980)
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