Arkansas Politics and Government, Second Edition

1. The Past in the Present

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [1], (1) Lines: 0 to 63 ——— 1.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [1], (1) chapter one The Past in the Present The room was being crowded by incoming ballot boxes. Countrymen, most of them sweat-soaked and ragged and old, were bringing in boxes from rural precincts; wooden boxes, tin boxes, now and then a cigar box or egg crate. Voice of the people. Charles M. Wilson, Rabble Rouser, 1936 I have got my first time to see any of them vote for a measure that truly had the interests of the people at heart. State Senator, 1901 On September 25, 1997, before a cheering crowd of seventy-five hundred spectators gathered in front of Little Rock’s Central High, the president of the United States, the governor of Arkansas, and the mayor of Little Rock saluted the nine individuals who, as students, had once been denied entrance to the school but courageously returned to integrate it. President Bill Clinton praised the sacrifices of the Little Rock Nine who had “changed the course of our history here forever.” Governor Mike Huckabee added, “We come here today to say once and for all that what happened here forty years ago was simply wrong. It was evil and we renounce it.” After further speechmaking, the trio of dignitaries escorted the Little Rock Nine through the front doors of the school.1 OnSeptember23,1957,averydifferentkindofgrouphadgatheredatCentral High. Hundreds of angry white agitators hurled racist vulgarities at and threatened physical violence against the first African American students to enroll at Central. Governor Orval Faubus had opposed the Little Rock School Board’s desegregation plan and had appeared in chancery court to support a request for an injunction to halt desegregation, which was granted. When 2 The Past in the Present 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [2], (2) Lines: 63 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TE [2], (2) this injunction was overturned in federal court, Faubus ordered theArkansas National Guard to seize the school and prevent the “Little Rock Nine” from entering. After a further federal court order directed that the National Guard be withdrawn and that integration proceed, the mobs gathered, whereupon President Eisenhower ordered in the 101stAirborne Infantry Division, under whose protection Central High was integrated. Though Governor Faubus always maintained that his actions were necessitated by his obligation to preclude violence, most analysts of the event suggest that Faubus was even more strongly motivated by his desire for reelection to an extraordinary third gubernatorial term.2 In this respect alone, the actions were “successful”: Faubus, in fact, went on to an unprecedented six two-year terms. However, many of the educational and economic development programs that Faubus had earlier initiated were severely disrupted, and Arkansas acquired an instant global identity as a state characterized by racism, violence, and demagoguery.3 Although Arkansas had indeed traveled a long road from 1957 to 1997, neither of these two episodes offers an entirely accurate abstract of the temper of its times.ThoughArkansas had manifested all the major symbols of southern segregation and white supremacy (Jim Crow laws, the white primary, inferior public services forAfricanAmericans, occasional lynchings, and socalled race riots), this racism had always been more tempered than that found in some of the states in the deeper South. In 1889 Bishop Henry M. Turner, presiding bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, had predicted, “Arkansas is destined to be the great Negro state of the Country. The rich lands, the healthy regions, the meager prejudice compared to some states, and the opportunities to acquire wealth, all conspire to make it inviting to the Colored man. The Colored people have a better start there than in any other state in the Union.” Similarly, the early-twentieth-century Arkansas African American politician Mifflin Gibbs wrote favorably in his autobiography of the distinctly nonsouthern tolerance he had encountered.4 Although these assessments turned out to be overly optimistic, blatant race-baiting was a relatively rare campaign device. ManyAfricanAmericans voted in the general election and, where local custom permitted...