Lawrence Brooks Hays was born on August 9, 1898, in the Pope County town of London. He grew up in Russellville and attended the University of Arkansas. After military service in World War I and law school at George Washington University, he returned home and practiced law with his father. In 1925, he was named an assistant attorney general and moved to Little Rock.
A Lifetime of Public Service
His first entries into political races were not met with success, due to possibly in part to his family's open rejection of the Ku Klux Klan. (His father had also failed in 1922 in a bid for Congress.) He lost races for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1928 and 1930 and for Congress in 1933. Following the congressional loss, he was appointed general counsel to the U.S. Department of Agriculture by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1942, he was elected to Congress. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he was focused on foreign affairs. He was also a leading proponent of religion as a way to fight communism. His emphasis on faith was also evident when he became elected the president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1957. He was only the second lay person, and last one to date, to have been selected to this post.
In Congress, Hays had been a proponent of seeking a middle road on issues of segregation. He was not an integrationist, but he did believe that some rights should be afforded to African-Americans. These efforts were met with disdain by both sides. In 1948, Hays proposed what became known as “the Arkansas Plan” in an effort to keep the Democratic Party unified despite differing regional views on civil rights. His work creating a civil right platform plank in 1952 and 1956 has been credited with avoiding additional walkouts at the two conventions.
On the grounds that the U.S. Supreme Court was acting as a legislative body, Hays denounced the Brown v. Board decision in 1954. He also joined most other Southern members of Congress in 1956 by adding his name to the Southern Manifesto, which denounced the Brown v. Board decision. Of the 132 Senators and Congressmen from eleven Southern states, only 31 refused to sign. All of the Arkansas delegation added their names to it.
Crisis in the 5th District
A little more than a year later, Hays was caught up in the effects of Brown v. Board again. With Governor Orval Faubus openly defying federal law to keep Little Rock’s schools segregated, there was pressure on President Dwight Eisenhower to uphold the law. In an effort to create a compromise, Hays brokered a meeting with Faubus and Eisenhower, which did nothing to break the stalemate.
However, because he had worked to uphold the law, he was a target when he was on the ballot in 1958. In the Democratic primary, Hays defeated Amis Guthridge by a 3 to 2 margin. Guthridge was a Little Rock attorney who had been a leader in the segregation movement. Hays was surprised by a write-in candidate a week before the general election. Dr. Dale Alford, a member of the Little Rock School Board, defeated Hays by just over 1,200 votes. A few weeks later, Hays was feted at a testimonial dinner by politicians and also religious leaders such as Billy Graham.
Life after Congress
Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Hays to a series of positions following that election. In 1966, he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Hays moved to North Carolina in 1968 to take a position with Wake Forest University. While in that state, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1972. Shortly thereafter he moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, which would be his base until his death in 1981. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Russellville.
Among the books he authored were Politics is My Parish, A Hotbed of Tranquility: My Life in Five Worlds, and A Southern Moderate Speaks. Most of these books touched on the intersection of politics and faith in his career.
Baker, James Thomas. Brooks Hays. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1989. p. 88.
Broder, David S. “The Spirit of Brooks Hays.” The Washington Post. November 25, 1981.
Day, John Kyle. "The Fall of a Southern Moderate: Congressman Brooks Hays and the Election of 1958." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 49 (Autumn 2000): 241-64.
Hunter, Marjorie. “Ex-Rep. Brooks Hays, Aide to President, 83, Dies.” The New York Times. October 13, 1981.
"Little Rock Look Back: L. Brooks Hays." Little Rock Culture Vulture. https://lrculturevulture.com/2015/08/09/little-rock-look-back-l-brooks-hays (accessed July 2, 2017).
Scott Whiteley Carter is Special Projects Administrator for the City of Little Rock. In the capacity, he functions as the City's historian. A native of Little Rock, he is a graduate of Missouri State University. He met Brooks Hays several times as a small boy.