tfp18

"THE FINE PRINT"

The musings of Michael Schrader

BEWARE THE SNAKE OIL SALESMAN (A TRIBUTE TO ORVAL FAUBUS)
(Written and published in the Farmington Press-Leader in January 1995. Posted in toto with Preface and Epilogue 3 September 2001)

PREFACE -- This was the penultimate column written for and the final column published by the Farmington Press-Leader. I had moved to Little Rock the previous month, and the death of Faubus several weeks after my arrival in Arkansas had dominated the news. I learned a lot about Faubus that I did not know, and my opinion of Faubus and the Central High Crisis changed as a result.

      Orval Faubus passed away several weeks before Christmas. Who was Orval Faubus? He was not a friend of mine. I did not know him, although I knew of him.
       Upon his death, several excerpts of his memoirs were published. Upon reading these excerpts, I viewed Orval Faubus in a completely different light, as I now understood his philosophies and objectives.
       Many, however, especially in the media, have never allowed Faubus's memoirs to alter their opinion of the man. They disregard his memoirs as a feeble attempt at atonement.
       This close-mindedness is tragic, as Orval, however much it pains us to admit it, was right. And, unless we acknowledge that he was right, we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past and proliferate the mistakes of the present.
       Who was Orval Faubus? He was the longest serving and most (in)famous governor Arkansas ever had. (Unlike the current occupant of the White House, who may end up being a presidential footnote a la Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur, and a host of other one-term presidents, Faubus is mentioned in the "Civil Rights" section of practically every contemporary American history text.)
        Faubus was, of course, the Arkansas governor who called out the National Guard upon the arrival of the first black students at Central High School in Little Rock. Because of this one act, Faubus has forever since been labeled a racist.
        In his memoirs, Faubus asserts that he did send out the Guard to prevent integration, but rather to prevent a riot.   In Faubus's opinion, Little Rock citizens were upset about the integration not because they were racists (after all, Arkansas was considered to be progressive in the area of race relations), but because the "cause" was being promoted by outsiders who would not be affected by the outcome and therefore were only involved for selfish reasons, i.e. notoriety, ego, publicity...you get the picture.
       In short, Faubus contends, the pro-integrationists were pro-integrationists as long as it was in somebody else's city.
        Faubus's assertions made absolute sense to me, as they reminded me of an incident in 1989 at the University of Tennessee. (I was teaching at UT at the time.) Some students with a "cause" decided to build shanties on campus to protest inhumane conditions in South Africa. (This, of course, was "The Cause" being promoted by students on many college campuses, including Mizzou and Washington U.)
       "How appalling," was the popular chorus, "that the blacks of South Africa should have to live in such deplorable housing."
        Several days after construction of the shanties, the homeless of Knoxville, who slept under the bridges, moved in. (After all, why sleep under a bridge when you can sleep in a shanty?) Within a few days, the shanties were removed and the "Cause" was abandoned. Why?
        Perhaps guilty consciences and a sudden need to donate to the poor. (I doubt it.) Perhaps a "cause" is not any good when one is directly affected. (Bingo!)
        The actions of the students in 1989 confirmed Faubus contentions about the "cause" of 1957: a "cause" is only good when it affects somebody else. It is time, then, to acknowledge that Faubus and others who do not take up a "cause" are not evil or racist (a moniker I was given when I commented that the shanties were "rat-traps and should be torn down"), but are merely individuals who do not appreciate the thirst for praise and publicity that those who take up a "cause" seek.
        It is a fitting tribute to Faubus to heed some old, and good, advice: "Beware the snake-oil salesman."

EPILOGUE -- While I know that Faubus’s justification may sound really weak and contrived, but trust me, such things do happen in Arkansas. Several months later, I was confronted by several white activists, who called me a racist because I worked for the City of Little Rock, because everybody who worked for the City of Little Rock was racist, or so the story goes. I learned that these white activists were from the North, and that basically their purpose was to go to the South and fight for the minority cause. In short, their purpose was to foment racial tension. The problem with such an approach is that it can and often does escalate out of control. Arkansas was targeted because of the perception (unfortunately, not erroneous) that the people are relatively uneducated and that the government is infested with cronyism and good-ole-boyism (again, the perception was not erroneous, unfortunately). In other words, if you can succeed in Arkansas, you can succeed anywhere. (A bottom’s-up kind of approach). Having lived in Arkansas, I can understand why Faubus believed what he did. Nobody wants to be made an example of.