Back and Forth Between Faubus and Constituents

Governor Orval Faubus had been in office since 1955, and as a result of Brown v. Board, he knew himself to have a difficult political future. Desegregation was the issue that loomed over all southern politicians, even those in good standing with voters. Segregationists called for a resistance and put Faubus' re-election bid in trouble. It was only in 1956 when he repelled a serious challenger in Jim Johnson, a hardened segregationist who rallied forces against desegregation at Hoxie. To survive as governor, Faubus needed to make a choice: either satisfy his segregationist constituents or his moderate inclinations.

As the Little Rock School District considered the Blossom Plan, Faubus calculated his moves. How should the Arkansas governor respond to desegregation in the state's capital? In January 1957, he addressed the state legislature and played political gymnastics over the issue. He voiced concerns over potential violence from segregationists but decried "forcible integration of our public schools" by the federal government. The lack of a definite stance encouraged swarms of petitioners to seek meetings with Faubus to offer him advice. The governor welcomed it.

He instructed a close confidant and owner of local men's store, Jimmy Karam, to reach out to the segregationist White Citizen's Council.

Karam approached a local lawyer named Amis Guthridge, who had some sway in the organization.

"Amis, would you all support Orval Faubus for a third term if he would stop the integration of Central High School?" Karam asked.

Guthridge thought about it and nodded.

"Alright, he wants to meet with you," Karam said.

The governor hosted secret meetings with Citizen Council members and Karam. They met away from the press, including upstairs of Karam's store and the Governor's Mansion. Faubus heard their concerns and voiced his own thinking.

Guthridge recalled one meeting and said, "[Faubus] indicated to us very strongly that he was going to stop...the integration at Central High School." As meetings continued over the summer of 1957, Little Rock's segregationists felt reassured that Faubus was leaning towards the segregationists The fact that a poll from Mid-South Solutions, a Little Rock based firm, stated that segregation remained popular with 85 percent of the state's white population may have solidified his commitment. His subsequent actions showed that he was planning for intervention.

He made inquiries that purposely gave him political coverage and justification to call the National Guard, and he went as far as asking the Arkansas State Police to survey Little Rock stores and determine if there was evidence of a surge of weapons sales. The impromptu investigation had questionable merits, and the police gave Faubus what he needed. On August 21, he contacted the Justice Department and inquired about its options if violence arose in Little Rock. He pressured Superintendent Blossom to scrap desegregation altogether with fantastic stories of African-American boys arming themselves with guns and pistols, and that a secret society of vigilantes had organized.

Meanwhile, political considerations in and out of Arkansas forced Faubus to take action. In late August, ardent segregationist and populist Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia headlined a rally of the Citizens Council at the Marion Hotel and vowed that Georgian schools was to never desegregate and beseeched Arkansas to do the same. Faubus did not attend, but he did host Griffin at the Governor’s Mansion that night and the following morning. If a fellow governor making fire and brimstone speeches in one’s capitol had not raised the temperature enough, Arkansas Attorney General Bruce Bennett, who had fielded lawsuits against the NAACP and held favorable approvals from segregationists, seemed like a fatal challenger to Faubus in 1958.

Faubus' moderate allies were dumbfounded by Faubus suddenly championing the segregationist cause. Former Governor Sidney McMath, Faubus' former boss, tried to reason with him. After that failed, he tried to lure former President Henry Truman, an idol of Faubus, out of retirement to intervene. McMath pleaded with him to call Faubus; Truman refused to get involved. Winthrop Rockefeller made an in-person plea and argued that the governor defying the federal judiciary may harm the state economy. Adolphine Fletcher Terry, a prominent Little Rock socialite and friend of the First Lady, tried to convince Alta Faubus to do something to stop her husband. It did not help. Arkansas Gazette editor Harry Ashmore even once wondered aloud, "Faubus said that I had a blank check. Should I try to cash it?"

Rumors of potential violence turned into the worst-kept secret in Arkansas, offering Faubus political cover and an urgency to act. On Labor Day, he addressed the state on television. In defiance of the federal government, he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to block the Little Rock Nine's entrance into Central High School.