FAUBUS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AMERICAN PRODIGAL
Certain images connected with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s are branded in the collective consciousness of the nation: dogs and firehoses turned on African American protesters in Birmingham, the faces of the four young girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the National Guard escorting black teenagers into Little Rock's Central High School in September of 1957. At the time of Little Rock's desegregation, Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus ensured his place in history by defying federal court orders and blocking integration, thus forcing President Eisenhower to call out the National Guard. Faubus was certainly not the only southerner who vociferously opposed integration--George Wallace of Alabama and Lestor Maddox of Georgia (among others) also jumped on the bandwagon--but what's unusual about Faubus is that he started out as a racial liberal. Surprises abound inFaubus, a fascinating biography by Roy Reed.Reed's book does double duty, revealing the personal history of Orval Faubus and exploring the labyrinthine ties between politics and business still operating in Arkansas today.Faubusis a cautionary tale about good intentions gone bad, principles subsumed by ambition. How Orval Faubus, a one-time racial liberal, could have invoked the race card in 1957 and continued to play it for another decade is but one of many intriguing questions Reed attempts to answer. ButFaubushas implications beyond the life of just one man; its lessons about the corrupting influence of power, money, and big business could as easily be applied to any number of the political scandals rocking the nation today.