Lyon trustee gives behind-the-scene view of Little Rock Central High Crisis

April 23, 2007

The traditional historic opinion that Orval Faubus was the lone reason for the Little Rock Central High Crisis is a simplistic and incomplete point of view, the author of a landmark book on the issue said Thursday at Lyon College.

Dr. Elizabeth Jacoway, a Lyon College trustee and former professor, spoke on her book, "Turn Away Thy Son," which critics have hailed as "the definitive history of the Little Rock Central High Crisis."

Published by the Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, the book was released this year, the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock crisis.

Addressing a capacity audience at Holloway Theatre, Jacoway said the traditional view that Faubus was the "bad guy" solely responsible for the crisis is inaccurate. For most of his political life, Faubus was a liberal dedicated to helping advance the poor, black and white alike.

His father, Sam Faubus, was a member of the Socialist Party and gave his son the middle name Eugene after Eugene Debs.

In 1954 Faubus ran for governor as a liberal promising to increase spending on schools and roads. Although portrayed as a radical, Faubus won. He desegregated state buses and public transportation and began to investigate the possibility of introducing multi-racial schools. This resulted in him being attacked by Jim Johnson, the leader of the right wing of the party in Arkansas.

"Faubus won the election but he got the message," Jacoway said. "The issue of integration was political poison."

When the state legislature pushed through four bills upholding segregation in the schools, Faubus didn’t agree with them but signed them to preserve political capital.

"He signed them believing they’d be struck down by the courts and he could say he tried to do what the people wanted," Jacoway said.

When it became apparent that integration was inevitable, Virgil Blossom, superintendent of Little Rock schools and Jacoway’s uncle, designed what came to be known as the "Blossom Plan," whereby integration would begin in first grade classrooms where racism had yet to become entrenched in the minds of the students.

That caused an immediate uproar among parents, and the plan was altered to begin with high school classrooms instead. Blossom began receiving death threats and he asked his friend Faubus to call out the National Guard to quell any violence that may erupt.

In September 1957, Faubus used the National Guard to stop nine black children from attending the Little Rock Central High School. After trying for 18 days to persuade Faubus to obey the ruling of the Supreme Court, President Dwight Eisenhower decided to send the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to ensure that black children could attend class.

"And the rest, as they say, is history," Jacoway said.

Though she knew writing her book would upset some of the principal actors in the drama and their families, Jacoway said it had to be done.

"We can’t move beyond it until we acknowledge what really happened," she said.