Customer Reviews

Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal

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This is a well-done biography of an important character in the civil rights struggle. It gets only four stars, though, since it has no bibliography and its source notes are skimpy and not indicated by footnote numbers. Faubus was born in poverty and named Orval Eugene, with the Eugene being in honor of Eugene Debs, prominent Socialist leader admired by Orval's father. In Orval's youth he flirted with socialism and later lied about it in his political campaigns. When he saw the fierceness of reaction involved with the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, he ignored the rightness of the integration decision and plumped onto the side of the racists. If he had done otherwise he no doubt would not have been governor of Arkansas for 12 years (1955-1967) even though he would have been on the side of decency and right The years when Faubus was governor were hard years for fair-minded people, though a bit later, Dale Bumpers showed that decent people could be elected in Arkansas. It is interesting to contrast Faubus' career with that of Dale Bumpers (told with a light touch in Bumpers' engaging memoir, The Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town), but Bumpers came along a bit later and was able to be elected despite the racist tenets of some of his constituents. This book is well worth reading.