Arkansas and the Southern Manifesto

On March 13, 1956, 99 members of the 84th United States Congress promulgated the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, popularly known as the Southern Manifesto. The Southern Manifesto formally stated opposition to the United States Supreme Court Decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and the emerging Civil Rights Movement. The Southern Manifesto thereafter delayed federal civil rights legislation and gave Southern officials (especially those in Arkansas) the political cover needed to ignore the moral imperative of compliance with Brown and other federal desegregation mandates. Ultimately, the Southern Manifesto proved to be the primary catalyst for the catastrophic Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Crisis, the greatest confrontation between a southern state and the federal government since the American Civil War, and the primary cause for the disjointed social and race relations that deter Arkansas's development up to the present day.

In the immediate wake of Brown, however, Arkansas's public  schools actually presented a more cautiously optimistic reality when compared to the other states of the former Confederacy. The school boards of Charleston and Fayetteville were among the first districts in the South to accept federal desegregation orders. With a relatively small number of African-American students, these Ozark towns readily complied with Brown's corollary, known as Brown II, to desegregate "with all deliberate speed." Yet, after pressure from militant segregationists, the Hoxie School Board rescinded their initial decision to comply. Nonetheless, Arkansas did not initially join five other Southern states that employed the quasi-legal doctrine of interposition to officially declare Brown null and void within their borders and thus refuse to implement desegregation.

Within Arkansas's ambiguous milieu, the Land of Opportunity's congressional delegation played a decisive role in the formation, promulgation, and ultimate success of the Southern Manifesto. Arguably more than any other southern elected officials, United States Senator James William Fulbright of Fayetteville and Fifth District Congressman Brooks Hays of Russellville understood that both they and the rest of the Southern congressional delegation had to stay within the Democratic Party in order to block both Brown's implementation and federal civil rights legislation then pending before Congress. The initial draft of the Southern Manifesto was written by Democratic Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. of Georgia, with the assistance of Democratic Senators John Stennis of Mississippi and Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina. After reading this initial draft, Fulbright consulted with Hays, who urged his protégé to revise Russell's original draft in order to preserve the Democratic unity and thus the party's congressional majorities.

Fulbright's revisionist committee modified Russell's original statement to satisfy both intransigent segregationists (those who advocated formal defiance of the federal government) and so-called southern moderates like Hays who, though still committed to segregation, nevertheless believed that formal opposition to Brown was both futile and irresponsible. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus even traveled to Washington D.C. to persuade Hays, as well as Democratic Congressman Jim Trimble, to sign the statement. Faubus convinced these wavering congressmen that if they did not sign, radical intransigents would overtake southern politics. Faubus correctly surmised that the Southern Manifesto achieved Southern unity, for the promulgation harnessed state level defiance of Brown to shield Southern national officeholders from charges that they were "soft" on segregation in the summer primaries, ensuring both their reelection and the South’s continued dominance of congressional committees. Faubus used the Southern Manifesto to justify his refusal to comply with Federal judicial orders to desegregate Central High, arguing that the statement eviscerated Brown in both Arkansas and other southern states.

Arkansas's congressional delegation quickly reaped political rewards for their promulgation of the Southern Manifesto. Fulbright's signature, for instance, prevented former Dixiecrat leader and Arkansas Governor Ben Laney from successfully challenging him in the 1956 Democratic primary. Likewise, Hays easily deflected militant segregationist Amis Gutheridge's challenge in the 1958 Democratic primary. In the long term, however, these and other Arkansas Democratic politicians with national aspirations were stymied in advancement for their endorsement of massive resistance.  Before his signature, many considered Fulbright first in line to be named secretary of state in the next Democratic presidential administration. Fulbright was the target of especially strong criticism from clergy and academics from across the globe, many of whom expressed admiration for the senator's international exchange program. Likewise, many political pundits thought Hays, who soon was elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention, as an ideal running mate for the Roman Catholic Massachusetts Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960. Hays even could have arguably staved off the ultimately successful challenge to his congressional seat by Dr. Dale Alford in the 1958 general election if African-Americans had turned out to vote for him. Because of his signature, Arkansas's African-American community had largely abandoned their previous support for Hays and his brand of Southern moderation.