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Oral History Interview with Orval Faubus, June 14, 1974. Interview A-0031. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus reflects on the effects of his twelve-year tenure in the governor's mansion, state politics, and, of course, desegregation. Faubus paints himself as a populist who helped rescue Arkansas from backwardness with social programs and infrastructure. Merciless mischaracterizations from a lazy and hostile press have sullied his legacy, he claims, ignoring his many accomplishments and obscuring the true story of what happened on the courthouse steps in 1957. This interview will be useful to researchers interested in Arkansas politics in the middle of the twentieth century, the rising influence of the media in politics, and desegregation.
    Excerpts
  • Faubus describes his social programs
  • Faubus describes successful programs and hopes for future success
  • Faubus defeats economic royalists to defend needy citizens
  • Increasing banality of politics
  • Dale Bumpers as a political phenomenon
  • Expanding influence of the media in politics
  • The paradox that is Huey Long
  • Hostile newspaper coverage for Faubus
  • A hostile press assails Faubus
  • In-depth description of 1957 desegregation crisis in Arkansas
  • Defusing tensions over desegregation
  • Media exaggerates Little Rock crisis
  • Frustration that federal government forced Faubus to deal with desegregation himself
  • Legal desegregation affects whites' attitudes toward blacks
  • Faubus describes his black support and the ill effects of integration
  • Faubus thinks busing is wasteful and illegal
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • African Americans--Political activity
  • Arkansas--Politics and government
  • Bumpers, Dale, 1925-
  • Democratic Party (Ark.)
  • Fulbright, J. William (James William), 1905-
  • Rockefeller, Winthrop, 1912-1973
  • Governors--Arkansas
  • Long, Huey Pierce, 1893-1935
  • Press and politics--Arkansas
  • School integration--Arkansas
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.