Orval E. Faubus died this week, 37 years after he set the tone for years of Southern defiance of federal laws and constitutional protection of the rights of black Americans. It was a tragically bloody and ugly period, abetted by the selfish irresponsibility of such Southern politicians as Governor Faubus who put personal political ambitions ahead of their region's and nation's well being.
What Governor Faubus did was pander to the worst instincts of his constituency -- instincts he did not share. He was a relatively progressive thinker on civil rights, by the standards of 1957 Dixie. He privately accepted the right of the federal government to enforce a court order requiring Little Rock's Central High School to admit blacks. But even before the mob assembled, he cast his lot with it, against his sworn obligation to law and order.
Why? To a state leader begging him to do the right thing, he explained his decision this way: "I'm sorry, but I'm already committed. I'm going to run for a third term, and if I don't do this, [segregationist opponents] will tear me to shreds."
So he tore the Constitution and the fabric of Arkansas society to shreds, instead.
Governor Faubus failed to keep the schools all-white. President Dwight Eisenhower sent in the troops to uphold his sworn duty. But Governor Faubus succeeded politically. He had won in 1956 with a 100,000-vote margin. That became 200,000 in 1958, and he was re-elected three more times. His 1958 victory sent a message to Alabama, where George Wallace was on the rise, and Mississippi (Ross Barnett), and to the Southern delegation in the U.S. Senate, where "leaders" also put political survival above all other considerations. (As late as 1972, Governor Wallace played the race card to win an election, because, as his campaign manager conceded, "This was the only way we could win it.")
Orval Faubus mellowed. George Wallace repented. Few Southern politicians are openly racist today. Race politics appears dead and buried, resting in peace. We hope. There have been disturbing signs that some of today's politicians and public philosophers (and not only in the South) see political advantage in the rise of white resentment of today's civil rights movement.
We, too, have reservations about some -- but by no means all -- affirmative action efforts. That's quite different from ambitious politicians who put winning above all else. They had better think about the legacy of those like Governor Faubus who played with the fire of race politics, and recall the damage this did to blacks and whites, to states, to a region and to the nation.