Overview

Orval Eugene Faubus served as Governor of Arkansas for six terms (1955-1967) and became a symbol of massive resistance to school desegregation when he deployed the Arkansas National Guard in September 1957 to block nine Black students (the "Little Rock Nine") from entering Central High School in defiance of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. President Eisenhower was forced to federalize the Arkansas National Guard and send the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into the school; one of the most dramatic confrontations of the civil rights era. Faubus's hometown of Harrison; Arkansas was a notorious sundown town where Black people were threatened or killed if found after dark. The town had expelled its entire Black population in anti-Black riots in 1905 and 1909. Faubus initially was not considered a hardline segregationist; he had attended the integrated Commonwealth College and his father was a socialist. His turn to segregation was calculated political opportunism; riding white racial anxiety to win re-election five more times. His actions delayed school integration in Arkansas by years and emboldened segregationists across the South.

Key Affiliations

Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (1)

Known Associates & Connections

Sources & Documentation

1 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports