Faubus spent most of his first term attempting to neutralize his enemies and broaden his base of support. He also had the necessary will and nerve to raise revenues in order to increase funding to education.
In 1956 Faubus had the good fortune to have a challenger so controversial he bordered on caricature. Jim Johnson was a tall, wiry ex-Marine, handsome except for the habit of his mouth to curl up to one side in a snarl whenever he spoke. Johnson was the nominal head of the White Citizens Councils which had sprung up in Arkansas since the Supreme Court's decision on school desegregation. While the Citizens Councils had the support of some prominent local figures and former governor Ben Laney, most were the haunts of the red-necked and blue-collared. Roy Reed characterized them as the habitat of "second-rate lawyers, hustling clergymen, and hot-eyed parvenus." The elite white power structure tended to regard the Councils as little better than white trash lynch mobs in waiting.
Jim Johnson seemingly set out to confirm everyone's worst expectation, publishing a cartoon of Faubus fondling the behind of a black woman labeled "NAACP". Johnson charged that Faubus had "more nerve than a four-balled rabbit" for attempting to impose higher taxes and integration on the people of Arkansas. In much of the state Johnson's campaign consisted of little more than sending out goons to attempt to intimidate and break up pro-Faubus rallies.
Faubus demolished Johnson in the primary, but he came out of the election worried about the threat to his right. His polling showed that 85% of white Arkansans were opposed to school desegregation. To defuse this threat Faubus appointed a special commission to study how best to head off integration. The South was deeply divided on the best course of action. The hardliners of the Citizens Councils advocated what was generally referred to as "massive resistance," which was taken to mean opposition by any means necessary. This was justified according to the doctrine of "interposition," a notion similar to the creed of "nullification" which had helped precipitate the Civil War.
By contrast Faubus and most of the Arkansas power structure - particularly the Little Rock elite - favored a policy of voluntary gradualism. Little Rock's so-called Blossom Plan, named for School Board Superintendent Virgil Blossom, was so painstakingly methodical it would take two generations to implement, perhaps as long as the remainder of the century. The Blossom Plan was slated to commence with 17 black students entering Central High in the fall of 1957.
Over the summer Johnson and the Citizens Councils advocated absolute resistance to integration in Little Rock. Their actual number of members in the capitol was small, however, the main base of their support being hundreds of miles away in the delta and south Arkansas. Johnson threatened to bring caravans of militants when school opened. Meanwhile nearly everyone associated with the desegregation of Central High received a steady stream of death threats.
Next: The Central High Crisis
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