Oral history interview with Orval Faubus, June 14, 1974
Subtitle: interview A-0031, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Bass, Jack, interviewer; De Vries, Walter, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Politics and government; Governors; African Americans; Political activity; Press and politics; School integration; Democratic Party (Ark.)
Other titles: Interview A-0031. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Orval Faubus, June 14, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Arkansas governor Orval Faubus reflects on the effects of his twelve-year tenure in the governor's mansion, state politics, and of course, desegregation. Faubus paints himself as a populist who helped rescue Arkansas from backwardness with social programs and infrastructure. Merciless mischaracterizations from a lazy and hostile press have sullied his legacy, he claims, ignoring his many accomplishments and obscuring the true story of what happened on the courthouse steps in 1957. This interview will be useful to researchers interested in Arkansas politics in the middle of the 20th century, the rising influence of the media in politics, and desegregation.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on March 6, 2007).

Duration: 01:35:30

Interview participants: Orval Faubus, interviewee; Jack Bass, interviewer, Walter De Vries, interviewer.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Steve Weiss and Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files : 94.1 kilobytes, 174.9 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0031, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Linda Killen. Original transcript: 41 p.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.