Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee

WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER: 1967-1971

WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER 1967–1971 For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. —LUKE 12:48, KING JAMES BIBLE Winthrop Rockefeller lifted his hulking six-foot four-inch frame from his chair and lumbered across his study at the governor’s mansion. His wife, Jeannette, sat still and watched him evenly. The day before, Thursday, April , , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.had been shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Rockefeller had publicly dubbed the act “deplorable.”1 The question now was what else needed to be done to quell the gathering storm. Riots had already broken out in Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Baltimore; and across the country . Arkansas would not be spared the incidents of gunfire and arson the following day, particularly in the cities of Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and North Little Rock.2 The Rockefellers were united on one score.A day of mourning for the coming Sunday needed to be announced by executive proclamation. It had been Jeannette’s idea. The proclamation had already been drafted, and, in addition to the day of mourning , the proclamation espoused calm and the eradication of  Winthrop Rockefeller as governor. Courtesy of Butler Center photos, Arkansas Studies Institute Collection, Little Rock. racial barriers and prayed for a joining together “to fulfill the vision of brotherhood that gave purpose to Martin Luther King’s life and works.”3 Simultaneous with the proclamation,black leaders led by Dr. Jerry Jewell, president of the state NAACP, were coordinating a memorial service on the state capitol steps for Sunday afternoon, April . Secretary of State Kelly Bryant had agreed to the service, but Rockefeller had not yet committed to an appearance.He had expressed a desire to speak at a later interdenominational memorial service at the request of Episcopal Bishop Robert R. Brown, to be held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock.4 There were now two issues for the governor and Jeannette to resolve.The first was what Rockefeller would say to his department heads in a meeting in just a few hours about the assassination this Friday morning. The second was whether Rockefeller would, in fact, attend the service on the capitol steps on Sunday. His security force had already emphatically told him that if he did attend, he would be fair game for any sniper, black or white, positioned in any building across from the capitol. Plus, there were the obvious political consequences of supporting Dr. King even in death. Rockefeller had a ready excuse for not attending the memorial service—a binding commitment to speak in Hot Springs at one thirty that afternoon had long been on his calendar . The governor looked at Jeannette and spoke evenly: “We have to honor King’s legacy,and I’m going to tell my department heads precisely that.” What he did say later that morning to eighty-five assembled state officials was that they needed to be more aggressive in finding job opportunities for blacks in state government to eliminate “the cause” of Dr. King’s tragic death. He added, bobbing his WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER  head back and forth: “The problem is no different today than it was yesterday. The tragedy, I think, focuses a new attention on it. But I think we ought to intensify our efforts and search our consciences to see whether we are doing our part.”5 Friday night and Saturday, fires and shootings spread across the state. In Pine Bluff, seven hundred National Guardsmen patrolled the streets after four firebomb attacks and a gun fight that wounded three men. Hot Springs reported four fires. In North Little Rock, there was gunfire and a black-on-white beating .6 Racial tension was palpable, and the state hunkered down for what was believed to be the worst yet to come. He had moved to Arkansas in  to divorce his first wife, Bobo Sears, and at the request of Arkansas army friend, Frank Newell.7 Before then, Rockefeller had been the stuff of tabloids. “Playboy” and “rebel” were his common monikers. He was a grandson of the great oil titan and robber baron, John D. Rockefeller, and was born to extraordinary wealth and privilege. But he had always eschewed the Rockefeller trappings and any sense of seriousness and commitment, with the exception of a distinguished military career inWorldWar II,where he was awarded the Bronze Star with clusters. Wife Bobo, for...