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

FOREWORD

FOREWORD The journalist Mignon McLaughlin once observed that “courage can’t see around corners, but goes around them anyway.” In many respects, that’s what this wonderful book is all about: the courage and convictions of men in positions of enormous responsibility, when faced with decisions that had the potential to imperil their political careers. With the objectivity and intellect of a supreme court justice, the scholarship of a political historian,the engaging style of a professional storyteller, and the familiarity of a friend, Bob Brown crystallizes the difficult choices faced by ten formerArkansas governors . He shows how their decisions at crucial points not only defined those moments but shaped their tenures, shaped their legacies, and sometimes even shaped history. In areas from education to the environment, social justice to the conduct of politics, Arkansas governors have grappled with many of our nation’s defining debates. For Sid McMath, the question was whether or not to support President Harry Truman’s civil rights platform against the Dixiecrat tide. In the s, Francis Cherry faced the temptation of tarring his campaign rival as a Communist. Orval Faubus’s role in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High has become part of America’s civil rights history. In the turbulent days after Martin Luther King’s assassination, Winthrop Rockefeller’s public posture would affect the course of Arkansas race relations. Dale Bumpers confronted a redistricting dilemma that represented the old ways versus the “new politics” in Arkansas. For David Pryor, the decisive issue concerned the environment: a xi dam on the Strawberry River. Frank White put himself at the center of a debate about the role of religion in schools. Bill Clinton took on the challenge of teacher testing—a subject that remains central to our nation’s educational reform efforts. Jim Guy Tucker faced his defining moment in a special legislative session to close a Medicaid financing gap.And the controversial question of consolidating public school districts offered Mike Huckabee an opportunity to prove his mettle and his vision. I’ve been privileged to know and work with many of these men myself—including meeting Orval Faubus when I was elected governor as a high school student at Boys State; knowing Jim Guy Tucker, beginning with our days together as students at the University of Arkansas; working with Governor Winthrop Rockefeller when I was student body president at the University of Arkansas; serving in the legislature in my early twenties,during Governor Dale Bumpers’s first term; supporting Frank White when he chaired the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission under Governor David Pryor, for whom I’d been campaign treasurer; also serving as treasurer of Bill Clinton’s campaign and eventually following him all the way to White House; and hailing from the same hometown as President Clinton and Governor Mike Huckabee as well. Foreshadowing it all, I actually met two of these men on the very same day,when I was ten years old.Francis Cherry was running for the Arkansas House, and David Pryor was driving him around, and they came to my parents’ house in Hope so Candidate Cherry could visit with my father.I was much more interested in the candidate’s driver—an All-District Camden Panther Quarterback—than in talking to a future governor. Little did I know the football star was a future governor too! I’m struck and humbled by the number of extraordinarily talxii FOREWORD ented national leaders my small state has produced, including a string of charismatic, capable, progressive Arkansan governors who set the tone for Arkansas and the South. With these profiles and vignettes,Justice Brown has assembled a lesson-book on leadership and the difficulties of decision-making in the moments it matters most. Some of the men involved were overwhelmed, or fell victim to ambition. The majority found the courage not only to handle things right, but also to do the right thing. MACK MCLARTY FOREWORD xiii ...